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Orbicules (syn. Ubisch bodies, con-peito grains) are small acellular structures of sporopollenin that might occur on the inner tangential and radial walls of tapetal cells. The ornamentation of the orbicule surface often resembles that of the pollen sexine. Different hypotheses about their function have been proposed, including them just being ...
Tapetum is important for the nutrition and development of pollen grains and a source of precursors for the pollen coat. [1] The cells are usually bigger and normally have more than one nucleus per cell. As the sporogenous cells undergo mitosis, the nuclei of tapetal cells also divide.
The pollen grain surface is covered with waxes and proteins, which are held in place by structures called sculpture elements on the surface of the grain. The outer pollen wall, which prevents the pollen grain from shrinking and crushing the genetic material during desiccation, [ citation needed ] is composed of two layers.
When a pollen grain adheres to the stigma of a carpel it germinates, developing a pollen tube that grows through the tissues of the style, entering the ovule through the micropyle. When the tube reaches the egg sac, two sperm cells pass through it into the female gametophyte and fertilisation takes place.
SEM image of pollen grains. Sporopollenin is a biological polymer found as a major component of the tough outer (exine) walls of plant spores and pollen grains. It is chemically very stable (one of the most inert among biopolymers) [1] and is usually well preserved in soils and sediments.
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.
Alongside the tapetosomes (clusters of oil and proteins produced by the endoplasmic reticulum), elaioplasts are frequently found in the tapetum of angiosperm anthers, where their products, oil from the plastid and protein from the tapetosome, are used to form the pollen coat of developing grains. [1]
Bees in four tribes of the family Apidae, subfamily Apinae have corbiculae: the honey bees, bumblebees, stingless bees, and orchid bees. [14] [15] The corbicula is a polished cavity surrounded by a fringe of hairs, into which the bee collects the pollen; most other bees possess a structure called the scopa, which is similar in function, but is a dense mass of branched hairs into which pollen ...