Fertilising flowers is an exercise in precision
Flower fertilization is a tough process that needs to have a perfect match between a single ovule and a single pollen tube, which contains sperm. A new study has been published stating how flowers can reproduce with the utmost precision.
The study explains that researchers believe that the moment a gamete fusion event occurs, all other pollen tubes are rejected and redirected to other ovules.
Mark Johnson the author of the study had this to say, “As soon as the fusion is successful, this mechanism is triggered that tells all the other pollen tubes to go away. I don’t know if there’s a physical block to more pollen tubes coming. We don’t see any evidence for that”.
Most likely, “some sort of molecule is triggered that repels the other pollen tubes,” he said.
The flower that was studied in the research was the Arabidopsis. To be successful in reproduction that the ovules should not be wasted. The repelling features that the flowers have help maintain a maximum of reproduction success.
This is probably the reason why flowering plants have been more successful than other plants in reproduction and growth.
“They’re basically everywhere,” Dr. Johnson added.