Class 12 · Sexual Reproduction in Flowering Plants

Apomixis: Asexual Seeds — NEET Biology

✅ Asked in NEET 2019
📖 NCERT Source

Although seeds, in general are the products of fertilisation, a few flowering plants such as some species of Asteraceae and grasses, have evolved a special mechanism, to produce seeds without fertilisation, called apomixis. What is fruit production without fertilisation called? Thus, apomixis is a form of asexual reproduction that mimics sexual reproduction. There are several ways of development of apomictic seeds. In some species, the diploid egg cell is formed without reduction division and develops into the embryo without fertilisation. More often, as in many Citrus and Mango

NCERT Biology · Class 12 · Chapter 1 · Paragraph 78
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Apomixis is asexual seed production where a diploid egg cell develops into an embryo without fertilization or meiosis, yet produces seeds that look like sexual reproduction. Students often confuse apomixis with parthenogenesis or incorrectly think it requires pollination. The key distinction: apomixis produces seeds (with seed coat and endosperm) without fertilization, while the embryo develops directly from the diploid egg. NEET repeatedly tests whether you recognize that apomixis is truly asexual reproduction mimicking sexual reproduction—it bypasses meiosis entirely, making it genetically identical to the parent unlike sexual reproduction.

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This paragraph was tested 2 times in NEET.

Q1 of 2NEET 2019

In some plants, the female gamete develops into embryo without fertilization. This phenomenon is known as: (NEET 2019)

Q2 of 2NEET 2016

Seed formation without fertilisation in flowering plants involves the process of (NEET 2016)

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