**1. Dehiscence in Crop Breeding:**
– Manipulation of dehiscence can enhance crop yield.
– Seed dispersal trait is disadvantageous for farmers.
– Many important plants have been bred for reduced shattering to improve agricultural outcomes.
**2. Mechanisms of Dehiscence:**
– Explosive dehiscence flings seeds or spores far from the parent plant.
– Examples include the Sandbox tree and Impatiens exhibiting explosive dehiscence.
– Septicidal and loculicidal dehiscence involve splitting of locules and septa.
**3. Types of Dehiscence:**
– Dehiscence occurs through breakage of various parts of the enclosing structure.
– Common types include transverse, longitudinal, valvular, and poricidal dehiscence.
**4. Anther Dehiscence:**
– Anther dehiscence releases pollen grains.
– Different types like extrorse, introrse, and latrorse describe pollen release positions.
– The stomium region and endothecium tissue play crucial roles in anther dehiscence.
**5. Dehiscence in Plants and Fungi:**
– Eucalyptus flower buds exhibit circumscissile dehiscence.
– Different fruit dehiscence types like xerochasy and hygrochasy exist.
– Sporangium dehiscence in fungi and myxomycetes is vital for spore dispersal.
– Understanding dehiscence in plants and fungi is essential for studying their biology.
Dehiscence is the splitting of a mature plant structure along a built-in line of weakness to release its contents. This is common among fruits, anthers and sporangia. Sometimes this involves the complete detachment of a part. Structures that open in this way are said to be dehiscent. Structures that do not open in this way are called indehiscent, and rely on other mechanisms such as decay or predation to release the contents.
A similar process to dehiscence occurs in some flower buds (e.g., Platycodon, Fuchsia), but this is rarely referred to as dehiscence unless circumscissile dehiscence is involved; anthesis is the usual term for the opening of flowers. Dehiscence may or may not involve the loss of a structure through the process of abscission. The lost structures are said to be caducous.