Name: Jan- Ar B.

Sebalda

SUMMARY

As it discussed, fertilization in Welwitschia is truly unique among land plants.

But, it is also worth noting that from the perspective of the male gametophyte, the
progamic phase between pollination and fertilization within the Gnetales is strikingly
diverse.

Pollen tubes in Ephedra only encounter gametophytic tissue, pollen tubes

in Gnetum encounter sporophytic and gametophytic tissues, and pollen tubes
in Welwitschia only grow within sporophytic tissue. It concluded that following fusion
of a pollen tube and prothallial tube, fertilization occurred within the confines of the
male gametophyte: a free female nucleus from a prothallial tube was posited to
migrate into the pollen tube and fuse with a sperm nucleus within the cytoplasm of a
binucleate sperm cell. It showed a fertilization event within the confines of the male
gamete/gametophyte was erroneous, a finding confirmed and amplified in the current
study. In Welwitschia, zygotes are always formed within the confines of the
cytoplasm of prothallial tubes, and as seen in the present work, involve the formation
of a discrete egg cell that is penetrated by a sperm nucleus. Hence fertilization
occurs within the body of the female gametophyte.

Although the pollen tubes of Welwitschia produce binucleate sperm cells

similar to Gnetumand Ephedra, only one of the two sperm nuclei regularly engages
in a fertilization process with a female gamete. This is so, even though each
prothallial tube that emanates from the micropylar end of the female gametophyte
contains several nuclei that appear to be identical in form and might individually
participate in separate fertilization events. As indicated, the following fusion of a
pollen tube and prothallial tube, coagulation of cytoplasm around a single female
nucleus in a prothallial tube creates a single egg cell capable of being fertilized. Only
a single zygote is formed per mating pair of male and female gametophytic tubes,
with the second sperm nucleus and tube nucleus orphaned outside of the newly
formed zygote. Thus, unlike Ephedra and Gnetum, where both nuclei of a binucleate
sperm cell regularly come into contact with two fecundible female nuclei and double
fertilization events ensue, the second sperm nucleus in Welwitschia typically lacks a
fecundible partner.

Interestingly, the potential for double fertilization events appears to have been
retained in Welwitschia each time a pollen tube fuses with a prothallial tube, should a
second egg cell be formed. In one instance of the fertilization process observed in
this study, two zygotes were found in direct contact with each other and within what
appeared to be the confines of a single prothallial tube. Thus, although the more
distant gnetalean ancestors of Welwitschia engaged in regular double fertilization
events, this (regular) process has been lost in Welwitschia, although perhaps not
entirely.