How does a tiny pollen tube find one egg cell hidden deep in a flower? Two helper cells called synergids show it the way!
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Inside each ovule is a team of 7 cells. Two of them are synergids (SIN-er-jids). They sit right next to the egg cell, at the end near the ovule's tiny opening.
At the tip of each synergid is a brush of finger-like folds in the cell wall. Scientists call it the filiform apparatus (FILL-ih-form). It helps the synergid send out signals.
Synergid comes from a Greek word that means working together. Good name for a pair of helpers!
A pollen tube has to find a tiny ovule inside a big flower. The synergids send out chemical signals that guide the tube toward them, like a homing beacon.
When the tube arrives, it grows into one synergid and bursts open. Out come the two sperm cells, right next to the egg cell and the central cell. That synergid has done its job, and it breaks down.
Press Send signals, then Pollen tube arrives on the 3D model.
By Peekaboo Kidz. A fun video for kids.
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