Fleshy structures associated with the ovule/seed arose independently several times during gymnosperm evolution. are linked to protection and dispersal, present in all four lineages of extant gymnosperms. The ontogenetic origin fleshy could be different, spans from ovule funiculus Taxus baccata aril, integument Ginkgo biloba, modified bracts as case Ephedra species. This variability ontogeny is ...

BACKGROUND Cotton is the dominant source of natural textile fibre and a significant oil crop. Cotton fibres, produced by certain species in the genus Gossypium, are seed trichomes derived from individual cells of the epidermal layer of the seed coat. Cotton fibre development is delineated into four distinct and overlapping developmental stages: fibre initiation, elongation, secondary wall biosy...

For several plant species, brood size results from the abortion of ovules and seeds. However, these processes have rarely been studied together in wild plants. In some of the leguminous species studied, seed abortion has been found to depend on pollen quality and on the position of the ovule or fruit. The direct consequence for the mother plant is that fruit costs increase as the seed:ovule rat...

In the angiosperms, fertilization initiates the formation of the seed from the ovule, including the differentiation of the seed coat from the ovule integuments. Seed coat differentiation includes some of the most dramatic cellular changes of seed development and culminates in the death of the seed coat cells. Recently, genetic analyses in Arabidopsis have contributed substantially to our unders...

Sterility in edible bananas is as a result of long history anthropogenic-driven selection for sterile genotypes, since seed not desirable fruit pulp human consumption. However, this poses challenge to conventional genetic improvement by slowing breeding pipelines. In study, we investigated whether pollen tubes reach all parts the ovary, position fertilized ovule development fruits, and potentia...

Ovules are the developmental precursors of seeds. In angiosperms the ovules are enclosed within the central floral organs, the carpels. We have identified a homeotic mutation in Arabidopsis, "bell" (bel1), which causes transformation of ovule integuments into carpels. In situ hybridization analysis shows that this mutation leads to increased expression of the carpel-determining homeotic gene AG...