Question

The number of meiotic division needed to produce 50 seeds are

• A. 63
• B. 50
• C. 100
• D. 200

Answer 1

The correct option is A 63

We shall do calculations for a usual angiosperm plant. Angiosperms show double fertilisation involving syngamy to produce zygote and triple fusion to produce endosperm. Seed comprises of both zygote and endosperm. Thus, in an angiosperm plant in order to produce 50 seeds the requirement will be 50 pollen (each producing two sperms) and 50 ovules (each producing one egg nucleus and one secondary nucleus). The pollens will develop from pollen mother cell and ovules will develop from megaspore mother cell. A single pollen mother cell will produce a tetrad of pollen grains. Thus, minimum 13 pollen mother cells will undergo meiosis to produce 52 pollen grains. This requires 13 meiotic divisions. On the other hand a single megaspore produces only a single functional megaspore which develops into a mature ovule. Thus, in order to produce 50 mature ovules, 50 megaspore mother cells will undergo 50 meiotic divisions, one meiosis per megaspore mother cell. This takes the requirement of 50 (in megaspore mother cells) + 13 (in microspore mother cells), i.e., 63 meiotic divisions.