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Embryo Sac (embryo + sac)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Life Sciences	100%

Selected Abstracts

Influences of Cross Pollination on Pollen Tube Growth and Fruit Set in Zuili Plums (Prunus salicina)

JOURNAL OF INTEGRATIVE PLANT BIOLOGY, Issue 2 2008
Hui-Juan Jia
Abstract Zuili plum (Prunus salicina L.) trees usually set fruit poorly, although they produce high quality fruit. To elucidate the causes of the poor fruit set, pollen tube growth into pistils and fruit set percentage were investigated after cross-, self- and open-pollination. Ovule development in Zuili pistils was also investigated. Pollen tube penetration into the ovules via the obturator and micropyle was best when Zuili pistils were pollinated by cv. Black Amber (P. domestica) pollen grains, although cross-pollinations with Hongxinli and Miili (P. salicina) pollen were more effective than self- and open-pollination. The fruit set percentage was also highest in pistils pollinated with Black Amber pollen grains. Morphological observation of Zuili pistils revealed that the trees produce "double pistils", developing two ovaries from a basal pistil, at a rate as high as 28%. In such abnormal pistils, most ovules were lacking an embryo sac or were entirely degenerated. The percentage of normally developed ovules was 24.3% and 8.9% in normal and double pistils, respectively. From these results, we conclude that the main causes of poor fruit set of Zuili plums are a lack of effective cross-pollination and the production of high percentages of double pistils in which normally developed ovules are scarcely formed. [source]

How many nuclei make an embryo sac in flowering plants?

BIOESSAYS, Issue 11 2006
Paula J. Rudall
Research on early-divergent angiosperms, including Amborella, the putative sister to all other extant angiosperms, is increasingly used as a yardstick to infer the nature of the hypothetical ancestral angiosperm. Some traits are relatively diverse (and hence relatively labile) in this phylogenetic grade, compared with the more derived eudicot clade, in which developmental patterns have become increasingly canalized. One of the many mysteries surrounding the origin of the angiosperms is the evolutionary origin of the Polygonum -type embryo sac (monosporic, eight-nucleate and seven-celled) that occurs in the majority of flowering plants. Observations on the megagametophyte of Amborella are conflicting, but a recent report of a supernumerary synergid in this genus raises the question of whether the Polygonum -type embryo sac is derived by duplication of a four-nucleate structure or by reduction from a multicellular structure. BioEssays 28: 1067,1071, 2006. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]

Mode of pollen tube growth in pistils of Ticodendron incognitum (Ticodendraceae, Fagales) and the evolution of chalazogamy

BOTANICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY, Issue 4 2008
AKIKO SOGO
Ticodendron incognitum is the sole species of the Ticodendraceae, which was established as a new family in the Fagales less than 20 years ago. Considering the diverse modes of pollen tube growth observed in other Fagales, we investigated the growth of pollen tubes in the pistil of Ticodendron. At the time of pollination, T. incognitum had four immature ovules in a bilocular ovary, thus exhibiting delayed fertilization, as in other Fagales. During the period when fertilization was delayed, pollen tube growth in the pistil was intermittent, consisting of five steps associated with development of the ovules and embryo sacs. Four cessation sites occurred: in the style, in the tissue of the upper part of the ovary, inside and outside of the funicle and at the chalaza. A single pollen tube eventually reaches a mature embryo sac through the chalaza in one of the four ovules. While both delayed fertilization and intermittent pollen tube growth play a role in male and female gametophyte selection, as in other Fagales, the five-step process of pollen tube growth through the chalaza (i.e. chalazogamy) is characteristic of lineages of the Casuarinaceae, Ticodendraceae and Betulaceae (the latter with the loss of one step). © 2008 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2008, 157, 621,631. [source]

High embryo sac fertility and diversity of abnormal embryo sacs detected in autotetraploid indica/japonica hybrids in rice by whole-mount eosin B-staining confocal laser scanning microscopy

PLANT BREEDING, Issue 2 2009
C. Y. Hu
Abstract An eosin B staining procedure for use with confocal microscopy (WE-CLSM) was used to examine the mature embryo sacs in 24 typical autotetraploid (2n = 4x = 48) indica/japonica hybrids and to compare with their original diploid (2n = 2x = 24) indica/japonica hybrids in rice. Four of the 24 hybrids showed >80% embryo sac fertility, and 13 hybrids over 70%. The average embryo sac fertility of the 24 autotetraploid indica/japonica hybrids was 68.08%, which was 17.33% higher than that in diploid hybrids. When compared with the diploid hybrids, 79.17% of the autotetraploid hybrids had higher embryo sac fertility. A diversity of abnormal embryo sacs occurred in autotetraploid indica/japonica hybrids. Embryo sac abnormalities were similar for both autotetraploid and diploid hybrid, but their frequencies were different. Some novel abnormal types were found in autotetraploid hybrids, such as enlarged egg apparatus. The embryo sac fertilities and frequencies of various abnormalities in autotetraploid hybrids varied with parental genotype and environment. The average seed set of the autotetraploid hybrids were higher than their diploid hybrids in different growing seasons. [source]