Month: September 2022

DOUBLE FERTILIZATION IN PLANTS (Dr Larry Jensen). A superb primer. Brilliant animation work that illustrates flower reproduction and pollen production. Were all teaching tools this good! https://lnkd.in/dGbeC4R View in LinkedIn

DOUBLE FERTILIZATION VIDEO. Angiosperms undergo double fertilization; gymnosperms, pines, ferns and mosses do not. https://lnkd.in/d8JsyNd View in LinkedIn

ANGIOSPERM HALLMARK. "Fertilization of both egg and central cell is a major distinguishing feature of flowering plants. Almost 120 years ago, Sergei Gavrilovich Navashin (1898) and Léon Guignard (1899) described independently for the first time that two fertilization events occur in lily, a major model plant at that time. The universality of this observation was confirmed in numerous flowering plant species (angiosperms) and is now widely considered as a major feature distinguishing angiosperms from all other organisms." https://lnkd.in/du6ggE4 View in LinkedIn

TWO SPERM FUSIONS. "During the double-fertilization event, one sperm cell fuses with the egg cell, forming the embryo, and a second sperm cell fertilizes the central cell, which develops into the endosperm. This sounds simple, but fertilization in angiosperms is a very complex process." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867415004882 View in LinkedIn

OH FOR SIMPLICITY! "Compared with the animal kingdom, fertilization is particularly complex in flowering plants (angiosperms). Sperm cells of angiosperms have lost their motility and require transportation as a passive cargo by the pollen tube cell to the egg apparatus (egg cell and accessory synergid cells)." https://lnkd.in/dCUwKCG View in LinkedIn

STILL A BLACK BOX. "Double fertilization is the defining characteristic of flowering plants. However, the molecular mechanisms regulating the fusion of one sperm with the egg and the second sperm with the central cell are largely unknown." https://lnkd.in/dxHFh57 View in LinkedIn

A-OF-G AND DF. "The angiosperm life cycle is more complex than the life cycles of the other major groups of plants that we have discussed. This is because in addition to having alternation of generations, angiosperms also have a process called double fertilization." https://lnkd.in/d4Dqxx6 View in LinkedIn

IN A NUTSHELL. "In angiosperms the diploid sporophyte is the dominant stage and the haploid gametophyte is completely dependent upon the sporophyte. The flower is part of the sporophyte: it is diploid and through meiosis will produce spores that will undergo mitosis to form gametes. The anthers will produce haploid microspores. These will undergo mitosis and differentiate to form the pollen grains, each of which carries two sperm. The ovules will produce haploid megaspores." https://lnkd.in/d4Dqxx6 View in LinkedIn

Arctic stronghold of world’s seeds flooded after permafrost melts https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/may/19/arctic-stronghold-of-worlds-seeds-flooded-after-permafrost-melts?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other View in LinkedIn

PLANT SWIMMING SPERM "requires an aqueous environment and thus limits their dispersal. Spermatophytes evolved mechanisms to protect their gametes from desiccation and so spread to almost all terrestrial areas. Flowering plants (angiosperms), which develop seeds from ovules that are enclosed in an ovary, represent the most successful phylum, comprising an extraordinary diversity of species dominating today’s terrestrial life." In no small part due to the innovation of pollen. https://lnkd.in/d9zxv6K View in LinkedIn