The failure of gametes from the same plant to form a viable embryo is known as self-incompatibility (SI). The process was initially studied in ornamental tobacco, where it was noticed that pollen grains that fell on the stigma of the same plant failed...

Self-incompatibility (SI) is a general name for several genetic mechanisms in angiosperms, which prevent self-fertilization and thus encourage outcrossing. In plants with SI, when a pollen grain produced in a plant reaches a stigma of the same plant or...