Question

Triple fusion was discovered in this plant possessing naked bulb, fleshy leaf bases and loculicidal capsule
A. Trillium
B. Aloe
C. Allium
D. Lilium

Answer 1

Hint: They develop from naked underground bulbs. The flowers are huge, brightly colored and mostly funnel-shaped. Leaves might develop just around the base of the plant near the ground, or they could extend all the way up the stem to just below the flowers.

Complete answer:
- All sexually reproducing organisms undergo fertilization. The fusion of male and female gametes for the development of zygote is known as fertilisation. Double fertilisation is a major feature of flowering plants.

- One of the male gametes fuses with the nucleus of the egg cell to form the diploid zygote. The other male gamete fuses with the two polar nuclei of the central cell and forms the triploid primary endosperm nucleus. The process of fertilization is known as double fertilization as it involves two forms of fusion in the embryo sac. As this involves the fusion of three haploid nuclei, it is referred to as triple fusion.

- The triple fusion was discovered by Nawaschin (1898, 1899). It was seen that in the ovules of Lilium martagon and Fritillaria tenella (Liliaceae), both male gametes from the pollen tube penetrated the embryo sac; while one of them merged with the nucleus of the egg cell, the other merged with the polar nucleus in the central cell, promoting a second fertilisation event. The Lilium plant has three petals surrounded by three sepals and develops from an underground fleshy bulb. The fruit is a loculicidal capsule.

Thus, the correct answer is option D i.e., Lilium.

Note: After triple fusion, the central cell forms the primary endosperm cell and grows into the endosperm while the zygote grows into an embryo. The primary endosperm cell then undergoes repeated division to form a triploid endosperm tissue. The cells of the endosperm tissue contain food materials which supplies nutrition to the developing embryo.