polyembryo

plural polyembryos

1. biologyA single seed that contains multiple embryos.

   A complicating feature of conifers, when estimating the number of lethals, is that polyembryos are common during seed development.

   1977, M. Thompson Conkle, Knobcone Pine Self Compatibility and Isozyme Inheritance, page 61

   2 more examples

   But sour and swee oranges have a number of characters in common -- small-panicled inflorescences, tight peel, whitish polyembryo, etc.

   1932, Taihoku Teikoku Daigaku. Ri-nogakubu, Memoirs, page 68

   This method is effective because unlike other fructiferous plants, citrus possesses the polyembryo property, thus obtaining from a single seed more than one plant with identical properties to the parent plant.

   2013, Giovanni Dugo, Ivana Bonaccorsi, Citrus bergamia: Bergamot and its Derivatives, →ISBN, page 26

2. biologyOne of a set of genetically identical embryos that develop from a single fertilized egg.

   Mitochondria, like the phospholipids, have been investigated when the polyembryo of Ageniaspis had the form of a tube (string).

   1964, Kazimierz Sembrat, Zoologica Poloniae: Archivum Societatis Zoologorum Poloniae, page 264

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   The phenomenon, nevertheless, is probably greatly underreported, because to my knowledge no one has searched methodically—using suitable nuclear genetic markers—for vertebrate polyembryos in nature.

   2008, John Avise, Clonality, →ISBN

   Furthermore, in certain species having polyembryos development (e.g., armadillo), all the embryos that have develope from a single fertilized egg are of the same sex.

   2010, Rehana Khan, A Textbook of Biotechnology Volume-I Genetics and Molecular Biology, →ISBN