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Female Gametophyte Development: Megasporogenesis and the Embryo Sac

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Inside an ovule's megasporangium, one megaspore undergoes mitosis, forming an eight-nucleate embryo sac: egg cell, two synergids, three antipodal cells, and a central cell with two polar nuclei.

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Synergid cells secrete chemical signals guiding an arriving pollen tube through the micropyle toward the egg cell.

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Of the four megaspores meiosis produces, only one survives to form the embryo sac; the rest degenerate.