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The Cytoskeleton During Pollen Tube Growth and Sperm Cell Formation

  • Conference paper
Mechanism of Fertilization: Plants to Humans

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((ASIH,volume 45))

Abstract

Angiosperm plants produce flowers in which their reproductive development occurs. In flowering plants and other groups of plants a diploid generation (sporophyte) alternates with a haploid generation (gametophyte). In angiosperms the male and female gametophytes are reduced to microscopic structures that are dependent, for their development, on the tissue of the sporophyte. The flower contains specialized structures, the anthers and pistil or gyneaceum, in which the male and female gametophytes are formed. The functions of the gametophytes are the production of the male sperm cells and the female egg cell, and their fusion in the fertilization. The male gametophyte completes its development in the anthers. In flowering plants, the pollen grain is the male gametophyte and the embryo sac is the female one.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Biologia Ambientale, Università degli Studi di Siena, Via P.A. Mattioli n. 4, 53100, Siena, Italy

    A. Tiezzi & M. Cresti

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  1. A. Tiezzi
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  2. M. Cresti
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Stazione Zoologica, Villa Comunale, 80121, Naples, Italy

    Brian Dale

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© 1990 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Tiezzi, A., Cresti, M. (1990). The Cytoskeleton During Pollen Tube Growth and Sperm Cell Formation. In: Dale, B. (eds) Mechanism of Fertilization: Plants to Humans. NATO ASI Series, vol 45. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-83965-8_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-83965-8_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-83967-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-83965-8

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