How did flowering plants evolved from the nonflowering gymnosperms?New work on Trithuria, a genus in the plant family Hydatellaceae, thought to be one of the earliest families of angiosperms, suggests that double fertilization occurs. Double fertilization is a unique feature of flowering plants where one sperm nucleus unites with the egg, producing the embryo, while another sperm nucleus unites with a separate nucleus from the female, producing the endosperm. The endosperm is divided into two regions—the micropylar and chalazal regions.
In Trithuria, the cells of the micropylar region divide many times to form the multi-celled endosperm. However, the chalazal region forms a single-celled haustorium, a structure that absorbs nutrients and ultimately degenerates to form an empty space in the seed. This situation is broadly similar to that of some waterlilies and some monocots but differs from that of many other early-diverging angiosperms such as Amborella, in which the endosperm is formed from the chalazal region.
One of the current hypotheses is that the endosperm originated as a monstrous proembryo that fails to develop into a plant. Rudall and colleagues' observations support this theory.
