Understand the sexual and asexual reproduction from the bramble and the daffodil plant
Understand the sexual and asexual reproduction from the bramble and the daffodil plant
Glimpse the varied means through which plants reproduce, from the asexual bramble to the daffodil.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Transcript
[Music in]
NARRATOR: Sexual activity in the plant world normally goes unnoticed by humans. But we don't have to look far to realize that all kinds of plants are constantly increasing their numbers.
Most flowering plants grow from seeds, but why do plants produce so many seeds?
The rigors of the terrestrial environment mean that many plants will not be able to reproduce [music out]. By making a large number of seeds, plants increase the chances that some of them will survive and reproduce again.
Not all plants need to reproduce sexually. The bramble plant produces roots at the end of this long stem; from here a new plant will grow. In spite of this method, however, sexual reproduction is still a major factor in the reproductive cycle of the bramble plant.
In order for sexual reproduction to take place, male and female gametes must fuse to produce the first cell of the new embryonic plant.
What is the value of sexual reproduction to plants?
Sexual reproduction ensures diversity, new genes, and a new blueprint. If the bees like it, this color could become dominant in the future, and if they don't, then this plant will become another casualty of natural selection.
In either case, the outcome will work to the advantage of the species as a whole.
The manner in which sexual reproduction is achieved varies from plant to plant, but the sexual reproductive cycle for all plants involves two stages, or generations. Botanists call this phenomenon the alternation of generations.
Consider the moss Mnium hornum. The leafy plant is the gametophyte generation and produces sperm and eggs. The antheridia produce motile sperms. In wet conditions, mature antheridia swell and burst, releasing sperm onto the surface of the leaves. Attracted by the sucrose secretion at the neck of the female sex organs, sperm swim into the neck of the archegonia, where fertilization takes place. The zygote cell will grow into the sporophyte generation. Inside the capsule, diploid spore mother cells divide by meiosis to produce haploid spores. Under the right conditions, the spores will be released and will germinate into the embryonic gametophyte plant called the protonema.
Mosses provide a clear illustration of how the alternation of generations works. The ferns show the same pattern but with a different dominant generation. Here, the spore-producing sporophyte is what we mainly associate with ferns, while the gamete-making gametophyte is a tiny unnoticed plant near the ground.
In flowering plants, like these daffodils, the alternation of generations is far less obvious because the gametophyte generation is even further reduced, while the sexual apparatus is far more sophisticated.
The sexual organs of this daffodil plant are concentrated in the flower.
Colored petals function to attract insects, important agents for pollination. The trumpet structure in the middle is called the corolla and consists of fused petals. What kind of an advantage might the corolla be to a plant?
Inside the corolla, we can see the sexual structures of the plant. The female sex organ consists of the stigma, which is elevated on the style and terminates at the ovary, where the female egg cells are contained within ovules. The female egg cells contained within the ovules constitute the female gametophyte generation.
Arranged around the stigma are the male sex organs or stamens. Each stamen consists of an anther and a filament. The anthers contain microspore mother cells that eventually produce the gametophyte generation, also known as pollen grains.
When the flower is mature, the corolla opens to reveal the pistil and stamen inside. At the same time, the top of the stamen is releasing millions of pollen grains.
The daffodil is called an entomophilous flower because insects transfer the pollen from one flower to another. But why do insects do this?
[Music]
Flowers have evolved to produce the colors, scent, and food sources that will be most attractive to insects. In their quest for food, insects brush against anthers and stigmas, effectively cross-pollinating the flowers. Insects are blissfully unaware of their vital role in the life cycles of the plants they pollinate.
Some flowers, such as these foxgloves, have evolved in parallel with their insect pollinators. The size and shape of the flowers ideally suits the bumblebee. The markings and hairs on the lower petals serve as a landing strip to guide the pollinators straight to the nectaries.
Insects are not the only agents of pollination used by plants. For plants that rely on the wind to carry their pollen, there is no need for insect attractors such as conspicuous flowers, petals, sepals, nectaries, or other temptations. The tiny flowers suspend their anthers and stigmas into the wind to promote cross-pollination.
The pollen grains of anemophilous species are smaller and lighter than those of insect-pollinated flowers. They are also produced in extremely large numbers. How might this help the plant achieve pollination?
However it is achieved, pollination is an all-important process for most terrestrial plants since it ensures that fertilization will take place and that there will be a new generation of plants.
But how do plants ensure that the right pollen gets to the right stigma at the right time?
The dandelion uses a special mechanism to ensure that the correct pollen is transferred to its stigma. The flower head is actually made up of many individual flowers, called florets. The florets are cross-pollinated by insects but can also self-pollinate.
When the florets were growing, the closed stigma of the dandelion flower grew through the middle of the anthers so that pollen was transferred onto the style as it elongated. After a period of time, if cross-pollination has not taken place, the stigma curls back on itself to pick up its own pollen from the style below.
The passionflower has evolved a most interesting method for ensuring cross-pollination. When the flower opens, the anthers flip over. Foraging bees brush against the anthers taking pollen away on their backs. Sometime afterwards, the stigmas descend. Bees who are already carrying pollen from other flowers then transfer pollen to the stigmas as they continue their search for the nectar.
Despite some elaborate mechanisms to prevent it, self-pollination is sometimes unavoidable. But self-pollination doesn't have to mean self-fertilization. Plants can chemically recognize their own pollen and inhibit its further development in favor of pollen from another source.
Flowers such as this tiger lily in which both male and female sex organs are located are called perfect flowers. Where the plant produces separate male and female flowers, the flowers are said to be imperfect.
Here, the male flower is the catkin and is called the staminate flower. The small red flower is the female, or pistillate, flower.
How do completely separate male and female flowers ensure that they are in sync?
Many plants have ensured that cross-pollination takes place by deliberately keeping male and female flowers on the same plant out of sync. In this corn plant, the pollen is ripe long before the stigmas are receptive; therefore, the only way the ovules can be fertilized is by the pollen from another corn plant.
[Music]
Once the pollen season starts, there's no escaping it. Pollen seems to get everywhere. But what happens when it finally reaches the tip of a receptive stigma?
Each tiny pollen grain contains two nuclei. One nucleus is called the generative nucleus and will divide to produce two male sperm nuclei. The other nucleus is called the tube nucleus.
The receptive stigma chemically switches on the pollen grain which begins to generate a long tube with its own nucleus. It is important that this happens because the male gametes have to reach to ovules, which may be a considerable distance from the tip of the stigma.
The pollen tube grows down into the tissues of the stigma and down the length of the style. The tube eventually penetrates the ovule by passing through a small hole called the micropyle.
At the micropyle end of the ovule there is an egg cell nucleus flanked by two other nuclei. At the other end of the ovule are three nuclei left over from the previous meiotic divisions. In the center there is a diploid nucleus formed by the fusion of two polar nuclei.
The pollen tube releases one male gamete nucleus which fuses with the female egg cell nucleus. This is the moment of fertilization and produces a diploid zygote. This is the first cell of the new sporophyte, and it will divide repeatedly to produce the embryo.
The other male gamete nucleus fuses with the diploid polar nucleus to produce a unique triploid nucleus. From this new triploid nucleus a tissue called the endosperm develops.
It is in the endosperm tissue of wheat, barley, corn, oats, and rice that most of the seed's food reserves are stored. Thus, it is easy to see that endosperm is the single most important food source for mankind.
Not all plants produce a separate food store like endosperm for their embryos. It is a feature of most monocotyledons.
In dicotyledons, however, such as this young kidney bean plant, no such endosperm food store exists. The first two leaves of the embryo become swollen with food from the mother plant before the beans split the pod. This food store supports the young plant until it can make its own food through photosynthesis.
[Music in]
The seed is a powerhouse of potential.
[Music out]
Within a tough seed coat there is an embryonic plant with its own special food store.
When a seed is ready to germinate, it takes in water, and metabolic activity begins. Food stores, which mostly consist of starch, are mobilized by enzymes produced by the embryo.
Within this dicotyledonous seed, the young root, known as the radical, can be seen clearly. The young shoot is known as the plumule and emerges after the root.
On some monocotyledons, the plumule is protected by a coleoptile. This protective cap is clearly visible on young corn plants since it is left behind once the shoot reaches the surface.
[Music in]
After winter has thawed, the first flowers of early spring appear.
[Music out]
But these plants have not grown from seeds; they have reproduced from bulbs. Bulbs enable plants to reproduce asexually, that is, without producing gametes. It usually results in the production of identical offspring, although there are random mutations.
Bulbs are known as perennating organs. They allow plants to survive in adverse conditions and then to grow quickly when the time is right.
The swollen rhizomes of irises have a similar function, but asexual reproduction does not rely solely on perennating organs.
This liverwort can reproduce asexually via gemmae. Gemmae are small disks of green tissue that grow inside special cups. When mature they break off from the parent plant, often due to the action of raindrops. They scatter away from the parent plant and will eventually grow into new gametophyte plants.
Plants like this Bryophyllum can also reproduce asexually. Miniature plantlets develop at the edges of its leaves. In time, these will drop off and develop into independent plants.
Mature strawberry plants are able to establish new plantlets on the end of long runners.
Gardeners are able to cultivate plants asexually via cuttings. This is possible because stem cells like these are able to trigger the formation of root cells and will start to grow roots.
The ability of many plants to reproduce asexually helps commercial growers because it's quicker and more reliable than growing plants from seeds. It also ensures growers that quality is consistent.
Asexual reproduction is all about exploiting a good niche. In such circumstances the value of sexual reproduction [music in] with its resultant diversity may actually weaken the dominance of an established group. But in a changing environment, diversity means survival.
[Music out]
NARRATOR: Sexual activity in the plant world normally goes unnoticed by humans. But we don't have to look far to realize that all kinds of plants are constantly increasing their numbers.
Most flowering plants grow from seeds, but why do plants produce so many seeds?
The rigors of the terrestrial environment mean that many plants will not be able to reproduce [music out]. By making a large number of seeds, plants increase the chances that some of them will survive and reproduce again.
Not all plants need to reproduce sexually. The bramble plant produces roots at the end of this long stem; from here a new plant will grow. In spite of this method, however, sexual reproduction is still a major factor in the reproductive cycle of the bramble plant.
In order for sexual reproduction to take place, male and female gametes must fuse to produce the first cell of the new embryonic plant.
What is the value of sexual reproduction to plants?
Sexual reproduction ensures diversity, new genes, and a new blueprint. If the bees like it, this color could become dominant in the future, and if they don't, then this plant will become another casualty of natural selection.
In either case, the outcome will work to the advantage of the species as a whole.
The manner in which sexual reproduction is achieved varies from plant to plant, but the sexual reproductive cycle for all plants involves two stages, or generations. Botanists call this phenomenon the alternation of generations.
Consider the moss Mnium hornum. The leafy plant is the gametophyte generation and produces sperm and eggs. The antheridia produce motile sperms. In wet conditions, mature antheridia swell and burst, releasing sperm onto the surface of the leaves. Attracted by the sucrose secretion at the neck of the female sex organs, sperm swim into the neck of the archegonia, where fertilization takes place. The zygote cell will grow into the sporophyte generation. Inside the capsule, diploid spore mother cells divide by meiosis to produce haploid spores. Under the right conditions, the spores will be released and will germinate into the embryonic gametophyte plant called the protonema.
Mosses provide a clear illustration of how the alternation of generations works. The ferns show the same pattern but with a different dominant generation. Here, the spore-producing sporophyte is what we mainly associate with ferns, while the gamete-making gametophyte is a tiny unnoticed plant near the ground.
In flowering plants, like these daffodils, the alternation of generations is far less obvious because the gametophyte generation is even further reduced, while the sexual apparatus is far more sophisticated.
The sexual organs of this daffodil plant are concentrated in the flower.
Colored petals function to attract insects, important agents for pollination. The trumpet structure in the middle is called the corolla and consists of fused petals. What kind of an advantage might the corolla be to a plant?
Inside the corolla, we can see the sexual structures of the plant. The female sex organ consists of the stigma, which is elevated on the style and terminates at the ovary, where the female egg cells are contained within ovules. The female egg cells contained within the ovules constitute the female gametophyte generation.
Arranged around the stigma are the male sex organs or stamens. Each stamen consists of an anther and a filament. The anthers contain microspore mother cells that eventually produce the gametophyte generation, also known as pollen grains.
When the flower is mature, the corolla opens to reveal the pistil and stamen inside. At the same time, the top of the stamen is releasing millions of pollen grains.
The daffodil is called an entomophilous flower because insects transfer the pollen from one flower to another. But why do insects do this?
[Music]
Flowers have evolved to produce the colors, scent, and food sources that will be most attractive to insects. In their quest for food, insects brush against anthers and stigmas, effectively cross-pollinating the flowers. Insects are blissfully unaware of their vital role in the life cycles of the plants they pollinate.
Some flowers, such as these foxgloves, have evolved in parallel with their insect pollinators. The size and shape of the flowers ideally suits the bumblebee. The markings and hairs on the lower petals serve as a landing strip to guide the pollinators straight to the nectaries.
Insects are not the only agents of pollination used by plants. For plants that rely on the wind to carry their pollen, there is no need for insect attractors such as conspicuous flowers, petals, sepals, nectaries, or other temptations. The tiny flowers suspend their anthers and stigmas into the wind to promote cross-pollination.
The pollen grains of anemophilous species are smaller and lighter than those of insect-pollinated flowers. They are also produced in extremely large numbers. How might this help the plant achieve pollination?
However it is achieved, pollination is an all-important process for most terrestrial plants since it ensures that fertilization will take place and that there will be a new generation of plants.
But how do plants ensure that the right pollen gets to the right stigma at the right time?
The dandelion uses a special mechanism to ensure that the correct pollen is transferred to its stigma. The flower head is actually made up of many individual flowers, called florets. The florets are cross-pollinated by insects but can also self-pollinate.
When the florets were growing, the closed stigma of the dandelion flower grew through the middle of the anthers so that pollen was transferred onto the style as it elongated. After a period of time, if cross-pollination has not taken place, the stigma curls back on itself to pick up its own pollen from the style below.
The passionflower has evolved a most interesting method for ensuring cross-pollination. When the flower opens, the anthers flip over. Foraging bees brush against the anthers taking pollen away on their backs. Sometime afterwards, the stigmas descend. Bees who are already carrying pollen from other flowers then transfer pollen to the stigmas as they continue their search for the nectar.
Despite some elaborate mechanisms to prevent it, self-pollination is sometimes unavoidable. But self-pollination doesn't have to mean self-fertilization. Plants can chemically recognize their own pollen and inhibit its further development in favor of pollen from another source.
Flowers such as this tiger lily in which both male and female sex organs are located are called perfect flowers. Where the plant produces separate male and female flowers, the flowers are said to be imperfect.
Here, the male flower is the catkin and is called the staminate flower. The small red flower is the female, or pistillate, flower.
How do completely separate male and female flowers ensure that they are in sync?
Many plants have ensured that cross-pollination takes place by deliberately keeping male and female flowers on the same plant out of sync. In this corn plant, the pollen is ripe long before the stigmas are receptive; therefore, the only way the ovules can be fertilized is by the pollen from another corn plant.
[Music]
Once the pollen season starts, there's no escaping it. Pollen seems to get everywhere. But what happens when it finally reaches the tip of a receptive stigma?
Each tiny pollen grain contains two nuclei. One nucleus is called the generative nucleus and will divide to produce two male sperm nuclei. The other nucleus is called the tube nucleus.
The receptive stigma chemically switches on the pollen grain which begins to generate a long tube with its own nucleus. It is important that this happens because the male gametes have to reach to ovules, which may be a considerable distance from the tip of the stigma.
The pollen tube grows down into the tissues of the stigma and down the length of the style. The tube eventually penetrates the ovule by passing through a small hole called the micropyle.
At the micropyle end of the ovule there is an egg cell nucleus flanked by two other nuclei. At the other end of the ovule are three nuclei left over from the previous meiotic divisions. In the center there is a diploid nucleus formed by the fusion of two polar nuclei.
The pollen tube releases one male gamete nucleus which fuses with the female egg cell nucleus. This is the moment of fertilization and produces a diploid zygote. This is the first cell of the new sporophyte, and it will divide repeatedly to produce the embryo.
The other male gamete nucleus fuses with the diploid polar nucleus to produce a unique triploid nucleus. From this new triploid nucleus a tissue called the endosperm develops.
It is in the endosperm tissue of wheat, barley, corn, oats, and rice that most of the seed's food reserves are stored. Thus, it is easy to see that endosperm is the single most important food source for mankind.
Not all plants produce a separate food store like endosperm for their embryos. It is a feature of most monocotyledons.
In dicotyledons, however, such as this young kidney bean plant, no such endosperm food store exists. The first two leaves of the embryo become swollen with food from the mother plant before the beans split the pod. This food store supports the young plant until it can make its own food through photosynthesis.
[Music in]
The seed is a powerhouse of potential.
[Music out]
Within a tough seed coat there is an embryonic plant with its own special food store.
When a seed is ready to germinate, it takes in water, and metabolic activity begins. Food stores, which mostly consist of starch, are mobilized by enzymes produced by the embryo.
Within this dicotyledonous seed, the young root, known as the radical, can be seen clearly. The young shoot is known as the plumule and emerges after the root.
On some monocotyledons, the plumule is protected by a coleoptile. This protective cap is clearly visible on young corn plants since it is left behind once the shoot reaches the surface.
[Music in]
After winter has thawed, the first flowers of early spring appear.
[Music out]
But these plants have not grown from seeds; they have reproduced from bulbs. Bulbs enable plants to reproduce asexually, that is, without producing gametes. It usually results in the production of identical offspring, although there are random mutations.
Bulbs are known as perennating organs. They allow plants to survive in adverse conditions and then to grow quickly when the time is right.
The swollen rhizomes of irises have a similar function, but asexual reproduction does not rely solely on perennating organs.
This liverwort can reproduce asexually via gemmae. Gemmae are small disks of green tissue that grow inside special cups. When mature they break off from the parent plant, often due to the action of raindrops. They scatter away from the parent plant and will eventually grow into new gametophyte plants.
Plants like this Bryophyllum can also reproduce asexually. Miniature plantlets develop at the edges of its leaves. In time, these will drop off and develop into independent plants.
Mature strawberry plants are able to establish new plantlets on the end of long runners.
Gardeners are able to cultivate plants asexually via cuttings. This is possible because stem cells like these are able to trigger the formation of root cells and will start to grow roots.
The ability of many plants to reproduce asexually helps commercial growers because it's quicker and more reliable than growing plants from seeds. It also ensures growers that quality is consistent.
Asexual reproduction is all about exploiting a good niche. In such circumstances the value of sexual reproduction [music in] with its resultant diversity may actually weaken the dominance of an established group. But in a changing environment, diversity means survival.
[Music out]