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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.
SEM image of pollen tubes growing from lily pollen grains. A pollen tube is a tubular structure produced ... pistil, anther, and mature pollen grains of the wild type ...
Both pollen sacs are separated by the stomium. When the anther is dehiscing, it opens at the stomium. The outer cells of the theca form the epidermis. Below the epidermis, the somatic cells form the tapetum. These support the development of microspores into mature pollen grains.
It begins when a pollen grain adheres to the stigmatic surface of the carpel, the female reproductive structure of angiosperm flowers. The pollen grain begins to germinate (unless a type of self-incompatibility that acts in the stigma occurs in that particular species and is activated), forming a pollen tube that penetrates and extends down ...
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.
They are distinguished from all other flowering plants by the structure of their pollen. Other dicotyledons and the monocotyledons have monosulcate pollen (or derived forms): grains with a single sulcus. Contrastingly, eudicots have tricolpate pollen (or derived forms): grains with three or more pores set in furrows called colpi.
These become pollen grains, within which the microspores divide twice by mitosis to produce a very simple gametophyte. Heterosporous plants that produced microspores in microsporangia and megaspores in separate megasporangia evolved independently in several plant groups during the Devonian period.
Sometimes, this mitosis is abnormal, which is why many cells of mature tapetum become multinucleated. Polyploidy and polyteny can also be seen sometimes. The tapetum's unusually large nuclear constitution helps it provide nutrients and regulatory molecules to the forming pollen grains. The following processes are responsible for this: Endomitosis