have revealed that the female gamete in flowering plants controls fertilization recovery by secreting pollen tube attractants. The researchers, who explored why ovules continue to attract pollen ...

Since the discovery of double fertilization over a century ago, proteins mediating gamete interactions in flowering plants have remained elusive. A lily protein located at the sperm-cell surface ...

In a sample of 4,000 flowers, rates of self-fertilization went from around 50% for the flowers collected two to three decades beforehand to roughly 80% for their naturally occurring descendants ...

In flowering plants, seed development is preceded by a double fertilization event, whereby two male sperm cells fuse with two female gametes: the egg and central cells. The fertilized egg cell ...

This sets the stage for fertilization of the egg and would begin the process of seed formation -- had the reproductive act been completed. "In Cretaceous flowers we've never before seen a fossil ...

With sweet nectar and protein-packed pollen, some blooms lure bats and lizards as well as the proverbial birds and bees to play unwitting roles in fertilization. Other flowers, which evolution has ...