PLANT

DEVELOPMENTAL
BIOLOGY
An overview of plant development
• Plant as well as animals developed from common unicellular
eukaryotic ancestors
• But the contrast in developmental strategies is based on two
different properties of plant, i.e.
 First, they synthesize their own food using sunlight, CO2
and H2O
Second, they are immobile
Fundamental difference between plant and
animals
• Plant don’t gastrulate
• Undergo extended morphogenesis
• Have sporic meiosis rather than gametic
• Have tremendous developmental plasticity
Model organism
• Arabidopsis thaliana ,used as a model organism in plant development
• a small diploid flowering plant with short life cycle is used as a model
organism
• Self fertilizing and produces thousand of seeds
• Highly suited for genetic analysis and mutagenesis
• Easy to introduce DNA into its genome
• Suitable for surgical manipulation allowing molecular and cellular
approaches to study developmental processes
Kingdom  Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom  Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision  Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division  Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class  Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass  Dilleniidae
Order  Capparales
Family  Brassicaceae – Mustard family
Genus  Arabidopsis Heynh.P
Species  Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. 
Common name: mouseear cress P
Factors influencing plant growth and
development
1. Genetic factor i.e. genotype of plant
2. Environmental factor i.e. topology ,soil, climatic factors: aeration ,
humidity, light , temperature, moisture
3. Plant growth hormones like : auxin, ethylene etc.
Life History Of
Plants
Evolution of life as plant
• Life flourished in oceans for more than 3 billion years.
• No organisms lived on land until about 475 million years ago,
when the Earth’s Ozone Layer was formed.
• Three adaptations were required to allow plants to thrive on
land:
• The ability to prevent water loss.
• The ability to reproduce in the absence of water.
• The ability to absorb and transport nutrients.
Water loss prevention
• Moving to land had advantages like direct sunlight, increased carbon
dioxide, and a greater supply of inorganic material.
• However, the land environment also presented challenges on plants.
Evaporation became the major cause for drying out due to water loss.
• Accommodating to the environment plant developed:
• cuticle, a waxy layer of covering in plant surface that prevent water loss.
• stomata, also prevented the continuous water loss and also helped in gaseous
exchange.
Reproduction
• Moving on to the land the conditions got different, environmental
conditions were major problem for reproduction.
• Plant proceeded with a major adaptive change in reproduction,
reproduction through spores (A spore is a haploid reproductive cell
surrounded by a hard outer wall). Spore gave widespread dispersal of
the plant species.
• Eventually most spores develop into seeds
(A seed is an embryo surrounded by a
protective coat.) and the seed germinate to
give rise to a plant species.
 Absorption And Transportation
• On land plants absorb nutrients through the soil with their roots.
• Plants evolved to contain a specialized tissue known as vascular tissue, which
transports water and dissolved substances from one part of the plant to
another.
• Made up of:
• Xylem carries absorbed water and inorganic
nutrients in one direction, from the roots to
the stems and leaves.
• Phloem carries organic compounds, such as carbohydrates, and
some inorganic compounds in any direction.
Plant Classification
History On Plant Development
• As animals plant also has followed the same rule of evolution i.e.
evolving from simlpe to the complex form.
• It has showed growing complexity like from the earliest algal mats,
through multicellular marine and freshwater green algae, terrestrial
bryophytes, ferns, to the complex gymnosperms and angiosperms of
today.
• And many of the first plant are still surviving. eg. red, green and blue
algae.
• But recently the deverived groups are more flourished. eg.
angiosperms dominant over gymnosperms.
Continued...
• Now seen complex plant species are developed from single
celled algae surviving on water.
• The single celled algae developed into a multi cellular species
having a tissue grade of organization.
• On course of time some of the species remained the same
where as some developed organised tissue grade creating
functional sturcture that helps in survival.
• Both the species survived in the environment developing
their own strategy necessary for their survival.
Continued...
• Later on the plant developed a specialized tissue i.e. vascular tissues
that helped the plant in the conduction and absorption of necessarily
materials from the surrounding.
• Thus two groups were separated in plants i.e. vascular and non
vascular plants.
vascular plants non-vascular plants
they have xylem and phloem and can grow they don't have xylem and phloem instead
very tall they have other mechanism for absorption
and transportation

These plants have true leaves, stem and
roots.
they an be found almost all areas.
Example: Pteridophyte(fern),
angiosperms(apple),
gymnosperms(juniper)
They do not have true leaves, stem and
roots.
they grow close to ground and are found in
moist areas
Example: Bryophytas(liverwort)
Continued...
• Further the vascular plants are divided into two groups
based on the reproduction process they carry out.
• seedless plant
• plant reproducing through seeds
• Seedless include the phylum of ferns and phyla made up of
plants closely associated with ferns.
• Seed plants are plants that produce seed for reproduction
including phyla of gymnosperms and phylum of
angiosperms.
Gymnosperms
• Which are pine trees, are seed plants that produce seeds that are not
enclosed in fruits.
Angiosperms
• Also known as flowering plants, are seed plants that produce seeds
within a protective fruit.
Sporophyte
• Present in plants and certain algae
• Develops from the zygote produced when a haploid egg cell is
fertilized by a haploid sperm 
• Nonsexual phase
• Sporophyte body is diploid (2n)
• Produces spore (n) by meiosis
• Spore divide mitotically to produce gamete
 • In vascular seed-bearing plants, the sporophyte is
made of the entire body of the plant except for the
embryo sac and pollen.

Japanese maple (Acer palmatum) Marchantia sporophyte

Moss sporophyte Fern sporophyte
Gametophyte
•  One of the two alternating phases in the life cycle
of plants and algae
•  Haploid (n) multicellular organism that develops from
a haploid spore that has one set of chromosomes
•  Sexual phase with gamete
• Develop zygote and later sporophyte
Types of gametophyte
1. Female gametophyte
• Megagametophyte
• Produces female gamete

2. Male gametophyte
• Microgametophyte
• Produces male gamete
Diagram of male and female gametophyte
 Moss Fern
gametophyte gametophyte
Diagrammatic view of sporophyte and gametophyte cycle
 feature sporophyte gametophyte
Type of reproduction asexual sexual
Type of cell division meiosis mitosis
offsprings spores gametes
Chromosome number Diploid Haploid
First cell produced Haploid spore Diploid zygote
Occurrence in plants Lower plants like bryophytes Lower plants like
sporophyte depends on bryophyte has longer
gametophyte. gametophyte phase.

In angiosperm sporophyte In angiosperm

phase is longer. gametophyte is shorter
in compare to
sporophyte.
 Alternation of
generation in plants
Alternation of generation
• First demonstrated by Hofmeister in 1851
• Also called as metagenesis or heterogenesis
• Is the alternation of a sexual phase and as asexual phase in life cycle
of an organism
• Two phases are often morphologically and sometimes chromosomally
distinct
• Common in algae, fungi and plants
• Sexual phase, gametophyte produces haploid(n) gametes by mitosis
• Asexual phase, sporophyte produces haploid(n) spores by meiosis
Alternation of generation in different
plants
• Most algae have dominant gametophyte generations but some species
gametophyte and sporophyte are morphologically similar
• Bryophytes (mosses, liverworts, hornworts) have dominant
gametophyte on which adult sporophyte is dependent for nutrition
• In pteridophytes and phanerogams (gymnosperm and angiosperm), an
independent sporophyte is dominant

Importance
• Better chance for survival
• Better adapted to environment
• Variations are produces during meiosis
Alternation of generation in Algae
• In algae, there is no regular and fixed alternation of generations, as
found in higher plants
• In the case of simple unicellular Chlorophyceae, such as
Chlamydomonas, Sphaerella, etc., which reproduce sexually, there is
no distinct sporophytic generation
• The zygote is regarded as a sporophyte, because it is diploid (2n) and
during germination undergoes reduction division; producing
gametophyte
• It consists of an alternation of generations of one celled haploid phase
with a one-celled diploid phase
Alternation of generation in Bryophytes
• Haploid phase bears sexual reproductive organs, antherozoids and eggs
• Zygote is formed after gametic fusion that develops into sporophyte
• Sporophyte produces spores which always germinate to form
gametophytes
• Two generations are morphologically different so the type of alternation
of generation is called heteromorphic
• Gametophyte is longer-lived phase
• Sporophyte is dependent on gametophyte for nutrition so,
gametophyte generation is dominant
Alternation of generation in Bryophytes

Gametophyte of Mnium hornum, a moss Gametophyte of Pellia epiphylla (a species of thallose

liverwort) with sporophytes growing from the remains
of archegonia
Alternation of generation in Pteridophytes
• Pteridophyte is a vascular plant that reproduces via spore
• Haploid phase bears reproductive organs producing antheridia and
archegonia
• Gametophyte may be monoecious in homosporous species and dioecious
in heterosporous species
• Zygote forms after gametic fusion which develops into sporophyte
• Spore may be of one type (homosporous) or of two types (heterosporous),
i.e. microspore/male spore and megaspore/female spore
• Sporophyte is dominant and independent of gametophyte (prothallus) and
grows to a much greater size
• Sporophytes are differentiated into stems, leaves and roots showing well
developed conducting tissues
Alternation of generations in Pteridophytes
Fig: The life cycle of the fern.
Alternation of generation in Gymnosperms
• Haploid gametophyte depends on sporophyte for protection and nutrition which
is found within mature sporophyte
• 2 types of spores are produces:
Microspore/male spore-forms multicellular male gametophyte i.e. pollen grains
with pollen cone
Megaspore/female spore-forms multicellular female gametophyte i.e. ovulate
cone
• Pollen grains reach to female cone through wind
• Pollen tube develops to deliver male gamete to reach and fertilize female
gametes
• Fertilization takes place and zygote is formed that develops into sporophyte
embryo and whole ovule transforms into seed
• Seed has embryo’s food supply and a tough seed coat
Fig: Alternation of generation in Gymnosperms
Alternation of generation in Angiosperms
• Haploid gametophyte is dependent on sporophyte
• Gametophytic phase begins with meiosis that produces gametophytes:
Male(micro) gametophyte i.e. pollen grains [3-celled structure]
Female(mega) gametophyte [7-celled structure]
• Upon pollination, male gametophyte grows a pollen tube that delivers 2
non-motile sperms directly into female gametophyte
• One will fuse with egg to form zygote while the other will fuse with a cell
in female gametophyte that has 2 nuclei such that a triploid forms
• Triploid (3n) cell is called endosperm which serves as nourishment for
developing embryo
• Process is double fertilization
Plant Development
Life Cycle
Life Cycle of Plants
• Animals are almost entirely made up of diploid cells 
• Only the sperm and the eggs are haploid in animals 
• However in plants they can live at a stage where they may have
haploid or diploid cells.
• They alternate between Haploid and Diploid called Alternation of
Generation
• Alternation between Sporophyte with Diploid cells and Gametophyte
with Haploid cells
Types of Plant Life Cycles
• Plants of different groups show different types of life cycle:
1. Haplontic 
2. Diplontic
3. Haplo-Diplontic 
 Haplontic 
• Single vegetative individual
• It is a haploid and is called the Gametophyte
• It may be unicellular, multicellular or colonial 
• It has no free living sporophyte. The entire sporophytic generation is
represented by a single celled zygote. This zygote undergoes
meiosis to form the haploid spores
• Spores undergo mitosis to form the gametophyte
• Examples: Chlamydomonas, Volvox, Spirogyra, Ulothrix,
Oedogonium, Chara, Coleochaete
Haplontic Life Cycle
 Diplontic
• Distinct Sporophytic and Gametophytic structures
• The Sporophyte is Diploid and dominant
• This diploid individual grows vegetatively and produces gametes in its
own body via meiosis
• Here the gametes are the only haploid cells and are very few in
number
• They fuse during fertilization and give rise to the diploid progeny
• Both gametophyte and sporophyte simultaneously present
• exhibited by some green algae, brown algae and all seed bearing
plants i.e. gymnosperms and angiosperms 
Diplontic Life Cycle
Haplo-Diplontic 
• Both Sporophyte (Diploid) and Gametophyte (Haploid) are vegetative and
alternatively appear 
• The Diploid Sporophyte undergoes meiosis forming haploid meiospores 
• These meiospores undergo mitosis and germinate to form the haploid
gametophyte
• The gametophyte produces the gametes which fuse during the fertilization
to reform a diploid progeny
• This shows a clear alternation between a distinct haploid and a distinct
diploid individual/phase in the life cycle 
• Examples: Dictyota (sea weed), bryophytes, pteridophytes
Haplo-Diplontic