Embryo-sac Sentence Examples

The spores, as in the heterosporous Pteridophyta, are of two kindsmicrospores (pollen grains) borne in microsporangia (pollen sacs) on special leaves (sporophylls) known as stamens, and macrospores (embryo-sac) borne in macrosporangia (ovules) on sporophylls known as carpels.

The advent in 1351 of Hofmeister's brilliant discovery of the changes proceeding in the embryo-sac of flowering plants, and his determination of the correct relationships of these with the Cryptogamia, fixed the true position of Gymnosperms as a class distinct from Dicotyledons, and the term Angiosperm then gradually came to be accepted as the suitable designation for the whole of the flowering plants other than Gymnosperms, and as including therefore the classes of Dicotyledons and Monocotyledons.

The nucellus is a cellular tissue enveloping one large cell, the embryo-sac or macrospore.

The germination of the macrospore consists in the repeated division of its nucleus to form two groups of four, one group at each end of the embryo-sac. One nucleus from each group, the polar nucleus, passes to the centre of the sac, where the two fuse to form the so-called definitive nucleus.

The gametophyte or prothallial generation is thus extremely reduced, consisting of but little more than the male and female sexual cells - the two sperm-cells in the pollen-tube and the egg-cell (with the synergidae) in the embryo-sac. At the period of fertilization the embryo-sac lies in close proximity tube has penetrated, the separating cell-wall becomes absorbed, and the male or sperm-cells are ejected into the embryosac. Guided by the synergidae one male-cell passes into the oosphere with which it fuses, the two nuclei uniting, while the other fuses with the definitive nucleus, or, as it is also called, the endosperm nucleus.

This view is still maintained by those who differentiate two acts of fertilization within the embryo-sac, and regard that of the egg by the first male-cell, as the true or generative fertilization, and that of the polar nuclei by the second male gamete as a vegetative fertilization which gives a stimulus to development in correlation with the other.

If, on the other hand, the endosperm is the product of an act of fertilization as definite as that giving rise to the embryo itself, we have to recognize that twin-plants are produced within the embryo-sac - one, the embryo, which becomes the angiospermous plant, the other, the endosperm, a short-lived, undifferentiated nurse to assist in the nutrition of the former, even as the subsidiary embryos in a pluri-embryonic Gymnosperm may facilitate the nutrition of the dominant one.

The number of chromosomes in the nucleus of the two spores, pollen-grain and embryo-sac, is only half the number found in an ordinary vegetative nucleus.

As the embryo develops it may absorb all the food material available, and store, either in its cotyledons or in its hypocotyl, what is not immediately required for growth, as reserve-food for use in germination, and by so doing it increases in size until it may fill entirely the embryo-sac; or its absorptive power at this stage may be limited to what is necessary for growth and it remains of relatively small size, occupying but a small area of the embryo-sac, which is otherwise filled with endosperm in which the reserve-food is stored.

If in its extension to contain the new formations within it the embryo-sac remains narrow, endosperm formation proceeds upon the lines of a cell-division, but in wide embryo-sacs the endosperm is first of all formed as a layer of naked cells around the wall of the sac, and only gradually acquires a pluricellular character, forming a tissue filling the sac. The function of the endosperm is primarily that of nourishing the embryo, and its basal position in the embryo-sac places it favourably for the absorption of food material entering the ovule.

It may be wholly absorbed by the progressive growth of the embryo within the embryo-sac, or it may persist as a definite and more or less conspicuous constituent of the seed.

Isolated cases show that any of the cells within the embryo-sac may exceptionally form an embryo, e.g.

In Coelebogyne (Euphorbiaceae) and in Funkia (Liliaceae) polyembryony results from an adventitious production of embryos from the cells of the nucellus around the top of the embryo-sac. In a species of Allium, embryos have been found developing in the same individual from the egg-cell, synergids, antipodal cells and cells of the nucellus.

As the development of embryo and endosperm proceeds within the embryo-sac, its wall enlarges and commonly absorbs the substance of the nucellus (which is likewise enlarging) to near its outer limit, and combines with it and the integument Fruit and to form the seed-coat; or the whole nucellus and even the integument may be absorbed.

At an early stage of development a large cell makes its appearance in the central region of the nucellus; this increases in size and eventually forms three cells; the lowest of these grows vigorously and constitutes the megaspore (embryo-sac),which ultimately absorbs the greater part of the nucellus.

In Ephedra helvetica, as described by Jaccard, no proembryo or suspensor is formed; but the most vigorous fertilized egg, after undergoing several divisions, becomes attached to a tissue, termed the columella, which serves the purpose of a primary suspensor; the columella appears to be formed by the lignification of certain cells in the central region of the embryo-sac. At a later stage some of the cells in the upper (micropylar) end of the embryo divide and undergo considerable elongation, serving the purpose of a secondary suspensor.

In Gnetum Gnemon, as described by Lotsy, a mature embryo-sac contains in the upper part a large central vacuole and a peripheral layer of protoplasm, including several nuclei, which take the place of the archegonia of Ephedra; the lower part of the embryo-sac, separated from the upper by a constriction, is full of parenchyma.

This embryo-sac increases in size, gradually supplanting the cellular tissue of the nucellus until it is surrounded only by a thin layer of it; or it may actually extend at the apex beyond it, as in Phaseolus and Alsine media; or it may pass into the micropyle, as in Santalum.

Ultimately the apex of the tube comes in contact with the tip of the embryo-sac and perforates it.

The male cells in the end of the pollen-tube are then transmitted to the embryo-sac and fertilization is effected.

Consequent upon this, after a longer or shorter period, those changes commence in the embryo-sac which result in the formation of the embryo plant, the ovule also undergoing changes which convert it into the seed, and fit it for a protective covering, and a store of nutriment for the embryo.

The spore or embryo-sac. roots, or at least their functional repre sentatives, resembled those of Lepidodendron.

In flowering plants, anther s produce pollen which contains male gametes, and the embryo sac within the ovary contains a female gamete.

Endosperm is formed as the result of the fusion of the second male cell with the so-called definitive nucleus of the embryo-sac (see ANGlOSPERMS).