Pollen and seed analogies

Abstract

The dispersal units of plants are seeds but pollen is also dispersed and there are many similarities to be found between these two types of diaspores, especially in their environmental interactions. The economy of natural processes suggests that Nature would not “re-invent the wheel” and indeed there are many similarities, if not identical types of mechanisms, in the metabolic activities of seed and pollen responses to environmental conditions. The main differences regard scale and the responses/mechanisms available to bi-or tri-cellular systems compared to those operating at cytological or organ level. Intriguing parallels are highlighted in this paper without implying homologies.