Double fertilization

Double fertilization is a reproductive process in flowering plants in which two sperm cells participate in separate fusion events: one forms the embryo, and the other helps form the endosperm.

Pollen tube: A tubular outgrowth of a pollen grain that carries sperm cells through plant tissues to an ovule. It delivers the two sperm cells to the female gametophyte.
Angiosperm: A flowering plant whose seeds develop enclosed within an ovary that matures into a fruit. Double fertilization is characteristic of this plant group.
Nawaschin’s discovery of double fertilization: Sergei Nawaschin’s 1898 report that two sperm nuclei take part in separate fertilization events in flowering plants. The discovery established the defining two-fusion pattern.
Seed development: The process by which a fertilized ovule develops into a mature seed containing an embryo and supporting tissues. Both fertilization products contribute to the developing seed.
Synergid: A cell beside the egg in the embryo sac that helps guide and receive the pollen tube. Its signaling helps direct the pollen tube to the site of fertilization.
Ovule: A structure in a seed plant that contains the female gametophyte and develops into a seed after fertilization. It houses the cells involved in both fusion events.
Sergei Nawaschin: A Russian botanist who reported double fertilization in flowering plants in 1898. His observations first documented both fertilization events.
Ploidy: The number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell or organism. It distinguishes the typically diploid embryo from the typically triploid endosperm.
Plasmogamy: The fusion of the cytoplasm of two gametes, distinct from the later fusion of their nuclei. Each sperm–female-cell event begins with gamete cytoplasms coming together.
Embryo sac: The female gametophyte of flowering plants, usually containing an egg, a central cell, and associated cells. It contains both the egg and central cell that receive sperm.

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