APOMIXIS AND

POLYEMBRYONY
APOMIXIS (GK. APO- WITHOUT, MIXIS- MIXING) IS A MODE OF REPRODUCTION
WHICH DOES NOT INVOLVE FORMATION OF ZYGOTE THROUGH GAMETIC
FUSION. IT IS, THEREFORE, AKIN TO ASEXUAL REPRO­DUCTION. IN PLANTS
APOMIXIS COMMONLY MIMICS SEXUAL REPRODUCTION BUT PRODUCES SEEDS
WITHOUT FERTILISATION, E.G., SOME SPECIES OF ASTERACEAE AND GRASSES.
THERE ARE SEVERAL METHODS OF APOMICTIC DEVELOPMENT IN SEEDS. THE
TWO COMMON ONES ARE RECURRENT AGAMOSPERMY AND ADVENTIVE
EMBRYONY.
EXAMPLES
 1. Recurrent Agamospermy:
 Agamospermy (Gk. a- without, gamos- marriage, sperma- seed) is the
formation of seed that has an embryo formed without meiosis and syngamy. It
is of two types, non-recurrrent and recurrent. In non-recurrent agamospermy,
the embryo is haploid.
Adventive Embryony (Sporo­
phytic Budding):
:

An embryo develops directly from a diploid cell other than egg like that of
nucellus and integument, e.g., Citrus, Opuntia. It gives rise to a con­dition
called polyembryony or the phenomenon of having more than one embryo.
There may be more than one egg cell in an embryo sac or more than one
embryo sac in an ovule.
All the egg cells may get fertilised. Synergids and antipodal cells may also
form embryos. In gymnosperms polyembryony can also occur due to cleavage
of growing em­bryo. It is called cleavage polyembryony
EXAMPLES
POLYEMBRYONY

 Polyembryony, otherwise known as embryonic cloning, refers to the splitting of

one sexually produced embryo into many offspring, which are genetically
identical to each other but distinct from their parent(s), thus differing from asexual
budding. Polyembryony occurs in a wide range of invertebrates, like cnidarians, 
bryozoans, insects and echinoderms. In the cyclostome Bryozoa, cloning occurs
by fission of blastula-stage embryo, with each blastomere becoming an individual
offspring. In the classic example of the parasitic hymenopteran insects, the female
wasp, Copidosma, oviposits one or two eggs inside the moth egg, which develops
subsequently into a caterpillar larva. Inside the moth larva, the wasp’s egg
develops into a single compact mass of cells, called morula, which fragments into
a large number of diminutive units that develop into two types of larvae. One type
develops into a normal fertile adult, while the other type, called soldier larva, has
a thin worm-like body, and becomes sterile.