Endosperm

The endosperm is a tissue produced inside the seeds of most of the flowering plants following fertilization. It is triploid in most species. It surrounds the embryo and provides nutrition in the form of starch, though it can also contain oils and protein. This can make endosperm a source of nutrition in animal diet. For example, wheat endosperm is ground into flour for bread (the rest of the grain is included as well in whole wheat flour), while barley endosperm is the main source of sugars for beer production. Other examples of endosperm that forms the bulk of the edible portion are coconut 'meat' and coconut 'water', and corn. Some plants, such as orchids, lack endosperm in their seeds. The endosperm is a tissue produced inside the seeds of most of the flowering plants following fertilization. It is triploid in most species. It surrounds the embryo and provides nutrition in the form of starch, though it can also contain oils and protein. This can make endosperm a source of nutrition in animal diet. For example, wheat endosperm is ground into flour for bread (the rest of the grain is included as well in whole wheat flour), while barley endosperm is the main source of sugars for beer production. Other examples of endosperm that forms the bulk of the edible portion are coconut 'meat' and coconut 'water', and corn. Some plants, such as orchids, lack endosperm in their seeds. Ancestral flowering plants have seeds with small embryos and abundant endosperm, and the evolutionary development of flowering plants tends to show a trend towards plants with mature seeds with little or no endosperm. In more derived flowering plants the embryo occupies most of the seed and the endosperm is non developed or consumed before the seed matures. Endosperm is formed when the two sperm nuclei inside a pollen grain reach the interior of a female gametophyte (sometimes called the embryo sac). One sperm nucleus fertilizes the egg cell, forming a zygote, while the other sperm nucleus usually fuses with the binucleate central cell, forming a primary endosperm cell (its nucleus is often called the triple fusion nucleus). That cell created in the process of double fertilization develops into the endosperm. Because it is formed by a separate fertilization, the endosperm constitutes an organism separate from the growing embryo. About 70% of angiosperm species have endosperm cells that are polyploid. These are typically triploid (containing three sets of chromosomes), but can vary widely from diploid (2n) to 15n. One species of flowering plant, Nuphar polysepala, has been shown to have endosperm that is diploid, resulting from the fusion of a pollen nucleus with one, rather than two, maternal nuclei. The same is supposed for some other basal angiosperms. It is believed that early in the development of angiosperm lineages, there was a duplication in this mode of reproduction, producing seven-celled/eight-nucleate female gametophytes, and triploid endosperms with a 2:1 maternal to paternal genome ratio.