Fertilization in flowering plants involves two sperm cells and two female gametes – the egg cell and the central cell, progenitors of the embryo and endosperm, respectively. A previous study suggested that Arabidopsis plants carrying loss-of-function mutations in CYCLIN DEPENDENT KINASE A1 (CDKA:1) make a single sperm cell that preferentially fertilizes the egg cell to produce an embryo that triggers central cell division. Now, Frédéric Berger and colleagues overturn these widely accepted results by showing that a significant proportion of cdka;1 pollen actually delivers two sperm cells (see p. 2683). Delivery of a single cdka;1 sperm cell to a wild-type ovule can fertilize either female gamete, they report. However, when two cdka;1 sperm cells are delivered, one fertilizes the egg cell and the other activates central cell division. Fusion of the gamete nuclei fails in the central cell, however, which prevents paternal genome incorporation and causes seed abortion. Thus, this new analysis of the cdka;1 phenotype reveals an essential role for the paternal genome during early seed development.