Endosperm

Wheat seed

The endosperm is a tissue produced inside the seeds of most of the flowering plants following double fertilization. It is triploid (meaning three chromosome sets per nucleus) in most species,[1] which may be auxin-driven.[2] 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",[3] and corn. Some plants, such as certain orchids, lack endosperm in their seeds.

Ancestral flowering plants have seeds with small embryos and abundant endosperm. In some modern flowering plants the embryo occupies most of the seed and the endosperm is non-developed or consumed before the seed matures.[4][5] In other flowering plant taxa, the Poaceae for example, the endosperm is greatly developed.[6]

  1. ^ Stewart-Cox JA, Britton NF, Mogie M (August 2004). "Endosperm triploidy has a selective advantage during ongoing parental conflict by imprinting". Proceedings. Biological Sciences. 271 (1549): 1737–43. doi:10.1098/rspb.2004.2783. PMC 1691787. PMID 15306295.
  2. ^ Friedman, W. E. (2009-06-25). "Auxin at the Evo-Devo Intersection". Science. 324 (5935). American Association for the Advancement of Science: 1652–1653. Bibcode:2009Sci...324.1652F. doi:10.1126/science.1176526. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 19556491. S2CID 206521265.
  3. ^ "Edible Palm Fruits". Wayne's Word: An Online Textbook of Natural History. Archived from the original on 2 September 2017. Retrieved 14 July 2010.
  4. ^ "The Seed Biology Place - Seed Dormancy". Seedbiology.de. Retrieved 2014-02-05.
  5. ^ Friedman WE (1998), "The evolution of double fertilization and endosperm: an "historical" perspective", Sexual Plant Reproduction, 11: 6, doi:10.1007/s004970050114, S2CID 19785565
  6. ^ "The Development of Endosperm in Grasses". academic.oup.com. Retrieved 2024-05-13.

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