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The seed plant gametophyte life cycle is even more reduced than in basal taxa (ferns and lycophytes). Seed plant gametophytes are not independent organisms and depend upon the dominant sporophyte tissue for nutrients and water. With the exception of mature pollen, if the gametophyte tissue is separated from the sporophyte tissue it will not ...
In ferns the gametophyte is a small flattened autotrophic prothallus on which the young sporophyte is briefly dependent for its nutrition. In flowering plants, the reduction of the gametophyte is much more extreme; it consists of just a few cells which grow entirely inside the sporophyte. Animals develop differently. They directly produce ...
In seed plants the microspores develop into pollen grains each containing a reduced, multicellular male gametophyte. [5] The megaspores, in turn, develop into reduced female gametophytes that produce egg cells that, once fertilized, develop into seeds.
Diagram showing the alternation of generations between a diploid sporophyte (bottom) and a haploid gametophyte (top) A sporophyte (/ ˈ s p ɔːr. ə ˌ f aɪ t /) is the diploid multicellular stage in the life cycle of a plant or alga which produces asexual spores. This stage alternates with a multicellular haploid gametophyte phase.
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.
These plants have two spore types, megaspores and microspores. Generally speaking, the megaspore, or large spore, germinates into a female gametophyte , which produces egg cells . These are fertilized by sperm produced by the male gametophyte developing from the microspore.
SEM image of pollen tubes growing from lily pollen grains. A pollen tube is a tubular structure produced by the male gametophyte of seed plants when it germinates. Pollen tube elongation is an integral stage in the plant life cycle.
Endospory in plants is the retention and development of gametophytes, partially or entirely, within the walls of the generative spore. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] This is a trait present in many heterosporous plant species.