"Double Fertilization" provides a comprehensive overview of all aspects of this central event in the reproduction and development of flowering plants. Written by Val Raghavan, The Ohio State University, an acknowledged expert in plant developmental biology, the book vividly describes the molecular and cellular steps of the unique and complex fertilization process that culminates in the formation of embryo and endosperm, focusing on the latest results from the model plant Arabidopsis. The text is complemented by excellent illustrations, including 16 color plates. Since embryo and endosperm constitute the edible parts of many seeds and grains widely used in human and animal nutrition, an understanding of the fertilization process has great relevance for genetic engineering aimed at improving the nutritional quality of crop plants. This book is ideally suited to researchers and graduate students seeking a coherent view of current perspectives on embryogenesis and endosperm development in flowering plants.

Biotechnological methods are opening new ways in plant breeding. They allow novel strategies for improving crop productivity and quality, especially in the agrofood sector. The molecular mechanisms underlying these biotechnological approaches are presented here. Topics included are: pollen development, pollen tube growth, macrosporogenesis and fertilization and the effects of pesticides on sexual plant reproduction. Fertilization in higher plants is a complex process consisting of two events, the fusion of the egg with one sperm cell resulting in the diploid zygote, and the fusion of embryosac nuclei with another sperm cell, leading to a triploid endosperm. This "double fertilization" is preceded by the pollination process and a long lasting interaction between the dipoid pistil and the haploid pollen tube (progamic phase). Fertilization of flowering plants results in the formation of seeds and fruits, our basic food supply.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

In recent years there has been a growing awareness of the importance of reproductive biology to crop production and there has been a tremendous increase in research on reproductive structures of higher plants. Presented here is a wide information of different aspects of micro- and macrosporogenesis, pollen-stigma interaction and recognition, pollen tube growth, cytoskeleton, in vitro and in vivo gamete fusion, and incompatibility. The most advanced techniques employed in studies on reproductive biology of higher plants are described in detail.

This book contains the proceedings of the International Symposium on the Mechanisms of Sexual Reproduction in Animals and Plants, where many plant and animal reproductive biologists gathered to discuss their recent progress in investigating the shared mechanisms and factors involved in sexual reproduction. This now is the first book that reviews recent progress in almost all fields of plant and animal fertilization. It was recently reported that the self-sterile mechanism of a hermaphroditic marine invertebrate (ascidian) is very similar to the self-incompatibility system in flowering plants. It was also found that a male factor expressed in the sperm cells of flowering plants is involved in gamete fusion not only of plants but also of animals and parasites. These discoveries have led to the consideration that the core mechanisms or factors involved in sexual reproduction may be shared by animals, plants and unicellular organisms. This valuable book is highly useful for reproductive biologists as well as for biological scientists outside this field in understanding the current progress of reproductive biology.

Thirty-four years have elapsed since the publication of the late Professor P. Maheshwari's text, An Introduction to the Embryology of Angiosperms, a work which for many years served as an invaluable guide for students and a rich source book for research workerso Various texts dealing with sections of the braad spectrum oftopics encompassed by Maheshwari in his book have appeared in the interim, but a compendious modem work dealing with the whole field has been lacking. This present volume splendidly meets the need, and it is altogether fitting that Professor B. M. lohri, long an associate and close colleague of Professor Maheshwari and himself a prolific contributor to the subject, should have undertaken the task of editing it. When Maheshwari wrote, it was stiIl feasible for one author to handIe the subject, but today even someone with his fine bread th of vision and depth of understanding could not, alone, do it justice. So the effort has to be a collaborative one; and Professor lohri's achievement has been to bring together a team of authoritative collaborators, assign them their responsibilities, and put them to work to produce a text as integrated in its treatment as the diversity of the subject would allow. The product vividly illustrates the advances that have been made in the study of angiosperm reproductive systems in the last 30 years, and the book is surely destined to become the new standard for student and researcher alike.