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Pollen itself is not the male gamete. [4] It is a gametophyte, something that could be considered an entire organism, which then produces the male gamete.Each pollen grain contains vegetative (non-reproductive) cells (only a single cell in most flowering plants but several in other seed plants) and a generative (reproductive) cell.
The pollen tube elongates and pierces and grows through the megasporangium wall and delivers the sperm cells to the female gametophyte inside. Fertilisation takes place when the nucleus of one of the sperm cells enters the egg cell in the megagametophyte's archegonium. [7] In flowering plants, the anthers of the flower produce microspores by ...
Earlier pollen researchers include Früh (1885), [16] who enumerated many common tree pollen types, and a considerable number of spores and herb pollen grains. There is a study of pollen samples taken from sediments of Swedish lakes by Trybom (1888); [17] pine and spruce pollen was found in such profusion that he considered them to be ...
Plant spores are most obvious in the reproduction of ferns and mosses. However, they also exist in flowering plants where they develop hidden inside the flower. For example, the pollen grains of flowering plants develop out of microspores produced in the anthers. Reproductive spores grow into multicellular haploid individuals or sporelings.
Four chambers (pollen sacs) lined with nutritive tapetal cells are visible by the time the microspores are produced. After meiosis, the haploid microspores undergo several changes: The microspore divides by mitosis producing two cells. The first of the cells (the generative cell) is small and is formed inside the second larger cell (the tube cell).
Each male gametophyte typically consists of two to four cells enclosed within the protective wall of a pollen grain. The sporophyte of a flowering plant is often described using sexual terms (e.g. "female" or "male") based on the sexuality of the gametophyte it gives rise to. For example, a sporophyte that produces spores that give rise only to ...
It is typically triggered in humans by pollen and other bioaerosols. Between 10% and 30% of people in Western countries are affected. [12] Symptoms are usually worse during pollination periods, when there is significantly more pollen aerosolized in the air. [13] In these peak periods, staying indoors is one way to limit exposure.
Sexual reproduction typically requires the sexual interaction of two specialized reproductive cells, called gametes, which contain half the number of chromosomes of normal cells and are created by meiosis, with typically a male fertilizing a female of the same species to create a fertilized zygote. This produces offspring organisms whose ...