Q.Pollination and seeds formation are very crucial for the fruit formation. Justify the statement.

Normal fruit development is triggered by hormonal signals from a developing, fertilized seed, so without pollination (and the fertilization and seed formation it enables), the ovary generally does not enlarge into a fruit.

Fruit formation begins only once the ovary starts to differentiate into a fruit after fertilization, and that transformation is driven by hormones (such as auxin) produced by the seeds as they develop inside the ovary. Seed development, in turn, is directly triggered by fertilization, and fertilization can only occur once pollination has delivered compatible pollen to the stigma and a pollen tube has successfully reached the ovule. In other words, the whole sequence, pollination leads to fertilization, fertilization leads to seed development, and seed development hormonally drives fruit development, means that under normal circumstances, no pollination means no fertilization, no seed, and no fruit. The exception, parthenocarpy, only proves the rule: there, the ovary is artificially or naturally induced to produce the same hormone without any seed ever forming, which is precisely why parthenocarpic fruits are seedless.

The same concept is examined in the NCERT Class 12 Biology chapter on sexual reproduction in flowering plants, which the Maharashtra (MSBSHSE) syllabus is aligned with, so this answer serves CBSE and NEET revision too.

Trace the causal chain: pollination to fertilization to seed development to hormone-triggered fruit development.

• Treating fruit formation as automatic after flowering, without recognising it depends on a hormonal trigger from the developing seed.
• Forgetting to mention parthenocarpy as the hormone-driven, seedless exception that still confirms the general rule.