What is the function of germ pore?

What is the function of germ pore?
A Release of male gametes
B Emergence of radicle
C Absorption of water for seed germination
D Initiation of pollen tube

Detailed Solution

The pollen grain has a two-layered wall: an outer hard exine made of sporopollenin and an inner thin intine made of cellulose and pectin.
The exine has prominent apertures called germ pores, where sporopollenin is absent.
When the pollen grain germinates on the stigma, the intine grows out through one of the germ pores to form the pollen tube.
The radicle emerges and water is absorbed through the micropyle of the seed, not through the germ pore; male gametes are released from the tip of the pollen tube inside the synergid.
Hence the function of the germ pore is the initiation of the pollen tube.

Pollen grain in past papers

2 questions from this chapter have appeared across 1 exam years.

Keep going

Practise Pollen grain All 2 questions This chapter in 2012 AIPMT-MAINS