Selective embryo abortion

[1][3] The maternal plant may also play an active role by recognizing and selectively aborting genetically inferior embryos.

During this time period, researchers proposed and investigated several hypotheses for the mechanisms of selective embryo abortion.

[1] From the perspective of the source-sink hypothesis, each embryo acts as a sink, or recipient, of finite resources from roots and photosynthetic tissues.

Selective embryo abortion may therefore act on traits affecting plant survival and fitness following germination.

In species such as Medicago lupulinus, Nemophila breviflora, and Phaseolus coccineus, abortion appears to be affected by the relative position of an ovule within an ovary.

[5] The arrangement of ovarian vascular bundles, which transport nutrients to ovules, has been proposed as a potential influence on position-dependent probabilities of abortion.

In this scenario, the ovules fertilized first are expected to be stronger competitors due to their genetic quality, hence their higher probability of maturation.