How Plants Form Their Seeds

Around 80 to 85 percent of our calorie needs is covered through seeds, either directly as food or indirectly through use as feed. Seeds are the result of plant reproduction. During the flowering period, the male and female tissues interact with each other in a number of ways. When pollen lands on the flower's stigma, it germinates and forms a pollen tube, which then quickly grows towards the plant's ovary. Once it finds an ovule, the pollen tube bursts to release sperm cells, which fertilize the ovule and initiate seed formation. Pollen tube interacts with female plant tissue. Led by Ueli Grossniklaus, professor at the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at the University of Zurich, an international research team has now demonstrated how the pollen tube interacts with, and responds to, female plant tissue.