Double Fertilization - Brief History

Brief History

Double fertilization was discovered more than a century ago by Sergius Nawaschin in St. Petersburg, Russia, and Léon Guignard in France. Each made the discovery independently of the other. Lilium martagon and Fritillaria tenella were used in the first observations of double fertilization, which were made using the classical light microscope. Due to the limitations of the light microscope, there were many unanswered questions regarding the process of double fertilization. However, with the development of the electron microscope, many of the questions were answered. Most notably, the observations made by the group of W. Jensen showed that the male gametes did not have any cell walls and that the plasma membrane of the gametes is close to the plasma membrane of the cell that surrounds them inside the pollen grain.