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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.
A tiny gametophyte develops inside the wall of a microspore, producing a pollen grain. Pollen grains can be physically transferred between plants by the wind or animals, most commonly insects. Pollen grains can also transfer to an ovule of the same plant, either with the same flower or between two flowers of the same plant (self-fertilization ...
The cell number of each mature pollen grain varies between the gymnosperm orders. Cycadophyta have 3 celled pollen grains while Ginkgophyta have 4 celled pollen grains. [10] Gnetophyta may have 2 or 3 celled pollen grains depending on the species, and Coniferophyta pollen grains vary greatly ranging from single celled to 40 celled.
The competitive ability of pollen grains (microgapmetophytes) is rooted in the expression of their haploid genomes. The haploid genes are expressed immediately after pollen development and during pollen germination and pollen-tube growth. [2] About 60% of genes expressed in the sporophyte are also expressed in the microgametophyte. [3]
The anther produces pollen grains that contain male gametophytes. The pollen grains attach to the stigma on top of a carpel, in which the female gametophytes (inside ovules) are located. Plants may either self-pollinate or cross-pollinate. The transfer of pollen (the male gametophytes) to the female stigmas occurs is called pollination.
[10] (also called pollen vectors): organisms that carry or move the pollen grains from the anther of one flower to the receptive part of the carpel or pistil (stigma) of another. [11] Between 100,000 and 200,000 species of animal act as pollinators of the world's 250,000 species of flowering plant. [12]
The pollen is carried to the pistil of another flower, by wind or animal pollinators, and deposited on the stigma. As the pollen grain germinates, the tube cell produces the pollen tube, which elongates and extends down the long style of the carpel and into the ovary, where its sperm cells are released in the megagametophyte.
An endosperm is formed after the two sperm nuclei inside a pollen grain reach the interior of a female gametophyte or megagametophyte, also called the embryonic sac.One sperm nucleus fertilizes the egg cell, forming a zygote, while the other sperm nucleus usually fuses with the binucleate central cell, forming a primary endosperm cell (its nucleus is often called the triple fusion nucleus).