Question

What is the other name of vegetative fertilization?
A) Double fertilization
B) Somatogamy
C) Triple fusion
D) Central fertilization

Answer 1

Hint: The occasion of double fertilization is the fusion of female gametophyte with male gametes (two). This is present in angiosperms.

Complete Answer:
- The event of pollination leads to the formation of the pollen tube, which releases two male gametes inside the embryo sac, one of the male gametes fuses with the nucleus of egg in the process called fertilisation or syngamy. Syngamy results in formation of zygote.
- The second male gamete fuses with the polar nuclei present in the centre. This process is called triple fusion since three nuclei fuse to form a triploid structure. The triple fusion is also called as Vegetative fertilisation.
- Somatogamy refers to the fusion of cytoplasm before fusion of nuclei. This happens initially in syngamy.

Thus, the correct answer is option (C ) Triple fusion.

Additional information:
Double fertilization process is a characteristic of flowering plants where one sperm cell of a pollen grain is fertilizing an egg cell, second sperm cell fuses with the polar nuclei present in the centre to produce a triploid body which grows to become the endosperm. The endosperm is responsible for providing nourishment to developing embryos. This helps in increasing the longevity of seeds.

Note: The phenomenon of double fertilization was discovered by Nawaschin (1898) when observing the liliaceous plants- Fritillaria tenella and Lilium martagon.