double fertilization

American  

noun

1. the fertilization process characteristic of flowering plants, in which one sperm cell of a pollen grain fertilizes an egg cell while a second fuses with two polar nuclei to produce a triploid body that gives rise to the endosperm.

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double fertilization Scientific  

1. The process in which the two sperm nuclei of a pollen grain unite with nuclei of the embryo sac of an angiosperm plant. One sperm nucleus unites with the egg to form the diploid zygote, from which the embryo develops. The other sperm unites with the two nuclei located in a single cell at the center of the embryo sac. Together these nuclei form the triploid nucleus of the cell from which the endosperm develops. Double fertilization in this form is unique to the angiosperms.

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Etymology

Origin of double fertilization

First recorded in 1905–10

Example Sentences

The pollen tube grows into the style, eventually reaching the ovary and entering an ovule, resulting in double fertilization, where a diploid zygote and endosperm are produced.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2018

Watch this video to see an animation of the double fertilization process of angiosperms.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2015

Occasionally a three-poled instead of a four-poled figure resulted from double fertilization.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 8 "Cube" to "Daguerre, Louis" by Various