Abstract
In angiosperm plants the interaction between male and female gametophytes, the pollen tube and the embryo sac respectively, results in double fertilization. The pollen tube delivers two male gametes, the sperm cells, into the embryo sac. One sperm cell fuses with the egg cell to form the embryo, and the second sperm cell fuses with the central cell to form the endosperm. Most of our knowledge of the fertilization process is based on microscopical observations of fixed and sectioned materials (Jensen 1972; Van Went and Willemse 1984; Willemse and Van Went 1984). The embryo sac and the fertilization events taking place within it, cannot be observed directly, because it is positioned deeply inside the ovule, surrounded by a large quantity of untransparant sporophytic tissues.
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© 1992 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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van Went, J.L. (1992). Fertilization in Angiosperm Plants. In: Dattée, Y., Dumas, C., Gallais, A. (eds) Reproductive Biology and Plant Breeding. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-76998-6_18
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-76998-6_18
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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