Abstract
The unique pattern of angiosperm embroygeny provides few meaningful criteria for classification. The existing classifications are based solely on the early segmentation pattern of the proembryo. Analysis of angiosperm proembryo with regard to change in surface to volume ratio and segmentation of internal cells, provides significant criteria for a meaningful classification.
The outer surface of the zygote is exposed to an environment external to it, but the cells segmented by it become less and less exposed to the external environment and more and more to the internal environment. The segmentation of the first wholly internal cell or cells may be looked upon as the first important morphogenetic event that initiates an organizational change in the reaction system of the proembryo, as it results in the differentiation of two groups of cells which thereafter follow different developmental pathways.
In the proposed classification, (i) the number of cell tiers that comprise the proembryo at the time the first series of wholly internal cells are segmented, (ii) the relative location of the tiers with varying cell number, and (iii) the terminal or subterminal location of the tier in which the first internal cells are segmented, are employed as criteria to classify angiosperm embryos into groups, series and variations respectively. The different categories in each of the three criteria are separately numbered to characterise the embryo by an embryonic number.
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Periasamy, K. A new approach to the classification of angiosperm embryos. Proc. Indian Acad. Sci. 86, 1–13 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03050892
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03050892