Plant Embryo Development

Bolo, Diamos, Go, Marquez, Pilapil

Embryogenesis
It describes the subsequent period of development (after the formation of zygote), during which the zygote undergoes a complex series of morphological and cellular changes resulting in the formation of a developmentally arrested mature embryo. Embryonic development proceeds within the confines of the protective maternal tissue of the ovule, which becomes the seed coat surrounding the developing embryo and endosperm

Asymmetric Cell Division

The initial division of the zygote is transverse and asymmetric, generating a small, chalazally oriented apical cell and a large basal cell Apical cell bulk of the embryo proper Basal cell part of the root apex and the suspensor

Proembryo
The stages in which there is still no definite indication of differentiation into embryo proper and suspensor Applies to stages before the initiation of the protoderm Sequential longitudinal and transverse divisions of the apical cell and transverse divisions of the basal cell before forming the globular embryo.

Proembryo Stage

Proembryo
2-celled embryo Quadrant (4-celled) Octant (8-celled) *** Dermatogen Stage (16-celled)

Globular Stage
The delineation of the protoderm establishes the globular stage embryo, which increases in size and cell number by anticlinal cell divisions of the protoderm

Globular Stage
The cells of the protoderm have undergone anticlinal divisions. The interior cells of the embryo proper have undergone additional longitudinal divisions. The topmost cell of the suspensor has divided transversely to produce the hypophysis

Globular Stage
The cells of the hypophysis have divided longitudinally. The cells in the interior of the embryo proper have divided both longitudinally and transversely, while the protodermal cell divisions have continued.

The developing procambium (pc) becomes visible as elongated cells at the center of the embryo. gm, ground meristem

Globular Stage

Globular Stage

Heart Stage
Cell divisions parallel to the surface occur at specific regions of the lateral margins of the globular stage embryo, resulting in the emergence of the two lobes of the cotyledons. It represents the initial delineation of the two major embryonic organ systems, the cotyledons and axis.

Heart Stage

Heart Stage

Torpedo Stage
Enlargement of cotyledons and hypocotyl and further elaboration of the radial pattern.

Embryo becomes green and its plastids develop stacked thylakoids Provascular tissues also become recognizable within cotyledon primordia

Torpedo Stage
Shoot meristem becomes discernible as three distinct cell layers that will subsequently attain a tunica-corpus organization (Barton and Poethig, 1993). Root-shoot axis forms

Mature Embryo
The embryo bends due to space restrictions and the cotyledons eventually reach the chalazal end of the embryo sac.

Mature Embryo

References
Anatomy of Seed Plants by Esau West, M. & Harada, J. 1993. Embryogenesis in Higher Plants: An Overview. The Plant Cell, Vol. 5, 1361-1369. Berleth and Chatfield. 2002. Embryogenesis: Pattern Formation from a Single Cell. The Arabidopsis Book