Pollination and embryo development

A Look at Pollination

All living organisms have one major goal in common, which is to pass along their genetic information to the next generation by creating offspring. Flowering plants create seeds, which carry the genetic information of the parents and develop into a new plant. In order for seeds to be created, a process called pollination must occur.

Pollination is when pollen grains from an anther, the male portion of a flower, are transferred to a female part in the flower, known as the stigma. In order for pollination to be successful, the pollen grains transferred must be from a flower of the same species.

After the pollen grains land on the stigma, they create a pollen tube through the length of the style or stalk connecting the stigma and ovary. Once the pollen tube is complete, the pollen grain will send sperm cells from the grain down to the ovary. When the sperm cells reach the ovary and the egg cells, fertilization will occur, which will result in the formation of the seed. The seed will then be released from the parent plant and will be able to grow into a plant and continue the reproductive cycle using the method of pollination.

Zygotic embryogenesis in higher plants describes the developmental period in which the zygote undergoes a series of differentiation events, leading to the formation of a mature embryo. Establishment of the major embryonic organs and shoot and root apical meristems occur though partitioning events along the apical–basal axis, and many of these events are guided by the hormone auxin. Formation of the three embryonic tissue systems occurs along a radial axis perpendicular to the apical–basal axis. The mature zygotic embryo is generally developmentally arrested, metabolically quiescent and enclosed within maternal tissues of the seed. Somatic cells can be induced to divert from their normal fate and develop into embryos in a process termed somatic embryogenesis. Auxin and other plant hormones appear to play critical roles in inducing embryogenic competence. Zygotic and somatic embryogenesis represent parallel developmental programs in which cells acquire embryogenic cell fate and develop into mature embryos.

Somatic embryogenesis has been the method of choice for tissue culture, regeneration and transformation of maize for over twenty years. Somatic embryogenesis plays an important role in clone propagation. When integrated with conventional breeding programs and molecular and cell biology techniques, somatic embryogenesis provides a valuable tool to enhance the progress of commercial crop species.