Question

A flower with five stamens bearing dithecous anthers has produced total 2560 male gametes. What would be the number of pollen mother cells per microsporangium in this flower?

• A. 128
• B. 64
• C. 32
• D. 16

Hint:

In a flower with multiple stamens, the number of pollen mother cells is divided by the number of stamens.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is D

Step 1: Understanding the formation of pollen.
In flowers, each pollen mother cell undergoes meiosis to produce four pollen grains (male gametes). Since the total number of male gametes is 2560, and each pollen mother cell produces four male gametes, the number of pollen mother cells can be found by dividing 2560 by 4.
Step 2: Calculation.
\[ \text{Number of pollen mother cells} = \frac{2560}{4} = 640 \] Since there are five stamens, the number of pollen mother cells per stamen is 640/5 = 128. However, the question asks for the number of pollen mother cells per microsporangium, which corresponds to 16 for each stamen's microsporangium. Step 3: Conclusion.
The correct answer is (D) 16.