Home › ICAR JRF › Plant Sciences › Plant Reproduction › Self-incompatibility in flowering plants is cont…
Self-incompatibility in flowering plants is controlled by which locus?
AThe P locus
BThe R locus
CThe S locus
DThe T locus
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: C. The S locus
1. Incompatibility genes prevent pollen from germinating or growing into the stigma of a flower.
2. Self-incompatibility is controlled by the S locus, where S stands for sterility.
3. In some plants, such as cabbage, pollen is rejected at the stigma surface and never germinates.
4. In others the pollen tube is arrested after growing a third of the way down the style, and then dies.
5. That death follows either programmed cell death or degradation of pollen tube RNA by a ribonuclease encoded by the same locus.
6. This mechanism matters commercially because it inhibits the production of inbred and hybrid plants.
_Source: OpenStax Biology (1st ed., CC BY 4.0), Ch 32 "Plant Reproduction", section 32.2 Pollination and Fertilization_
Related questions
A flower has been pollinated. What must still happen before a seed can form?What is the transfer of pollen from a stamen to a stigma called?In Bryophyllum and kalanchoe, new plants develop from which structure?What happens to the components of a leaf that a tree is about to shed?Which characteristic of senescence explains the yellowing of leaves?How long may the vegetative period last in some bamboo species before flowering?Bamboo and yucca flower only once in their lifetime. Such plants are called what?A carrot, which completes its life cycle in two seasons, is which kind of plant?