Q.Name the components of the egg apparatus and state the specific role of the synergids during fertilisation.

The egg apparatus is the group of three cells situated at the micropylar end of the mature embryo sac: a single egg cell, flanked on either side by two synergid cells.

The synergids play a specialised and essential role in fertilisation. Each synergid has, at its micropylar tip, a distinctive structure called the filiform apparatus, made of finger-like cell-wall ingrowths that increase surface area; this structure is believed to help guide the growing pollen tube toward the embryo sac. The pollen tube, on entering the ovule (typically through the micropyle), grows into and penetrates one of the two synergids, where its tip ruptures and discharges its two non-motile male gametes into the synergid's cytoplasm. From there, one gamete moves to fuse with the egg …

Identify the three components of the egg apparatus, then focus on the synergid's structural feature (filiform apparatus) …

Thinking the pollen tube delivers gametes directly into the egg cell -- it actually discharges them into a synergid first, from wh …