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NEET-UG Biology

Outbreeding devices and pollen-pistil interaction — practice questions

6 questions in the bank on this idea. Below are 6 of them, exactly as they appear in a test.

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  1. Question 1 · difficulty L1 · recall

    What is self-incompatibility in flowering plants?

    • A. A genetic mechanism that prevents self-pollen from effecting fertilisation
    • B. A failure to produce pollen grains
    • C. A lack of ovules in the ovary
    • D. A type of vegetative propagation

  2. Question 2 · difficulty L2 · understanding

    How does dichogamy promote outbreeding?

    • A. The flower produces no pollen
    • B. Anthers and stigma become functionally mature at different times
    • C. The ovary develops before pollination
    • D. The plant produces only one flower

  3. Question 3 · difficulty L2 · understanding

    How can herkogamy reduce self-pollination?

    • A. By destroying pollen after germination
    • B. By preventing meiosis
    • C. By spatially separating anthers and stigma
    • D. By eliminating the stigma

  4. Question 4 · difficulty L3 · application

    A pollen grain lands on a compatible stigma and begins to germinate. Which event normally follows?

    • A. The stigma develops into a seed
    • B. The ovary immediately becomes a fruit
    • C. The pollen grain undergoes meiosis
    • D. The pollen tube grows through the style toward the ovule

  5. Question 5 · difficulty L3 · application

    A bisexual flower has functional pollen and ovules, but its anthers and stigma are positioned so that self-pollen rarely contacts the stigma. Which interpretation is most appropriate?

    • A. The flower must be male sterile
    • B. The flower uses a structural outbreeding device without being unisexual
    • C. The plant cannot reproduce sexually
    • D. Self-incompatibility is the only possible mechanism

  6. Question 6 · difficulty L4 · analysis

    Pollen from plant X germinates well on the stigma of plant Y, but pollen-tube growth is later arrested in the style because of recognition between pollen and pistil. What does this show?

    • A. Pollen-pistil interaction can determine compatibility after pollen lands
    • B. Any pollen that germinates must complete fertilisation
    • C. The style has no role in reproductive recognition
    • D. Pollen compatibility depends only on wind direction

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