Introduction to

Reproduction
 Objectives

1. To differentiate asexual and

sexual modes of reproduction
2. To describe different modes
of sexual and asexual
reproduction
 Characteristics of Life
• They're made of cells.
• They use energy.
• They grow and develop.
• They respond to their
surroundings.
What else?
• What is the result of reproduction?
• Why do organisms bother to
reproduce? Why don't they just live
forever?
• What would eventually happen to a
species if every member suddenly
lost its ability to reproduce?
 Asexual or Sexual
One parent or two?
 One parent or two?
That is the main difference between sexual
and asexual reproduction.
• Sexual reproduction just means combining
genetic material from two parents.

• Asexual reproduction produces offspring

genetically identical to the one parent.
In many other
organisms, two parents
are involved, and the
offspring are not
identical to the parents.
In fact, each offspring is
unique. Look at the
family in Figure. The
children resemble their
parents, but they are not
identical to them.
Instead, each has a
unique combination of
characteristics inherited
from both parents.
 Sexual Reproduction
• involves two parents.
• parents produce reproductive cells—
called gametes—that unite to form an offspring.
• Gametes are haploid cells. This means they contain
only half the number of chromosomes found in
other cells of the organism.
• Gametes are produced by a type of cell
division called meiosis
• The process in which two gametes unite is
called fertilization.
• The fertilized cell that results is referred to as
a zygote.
• A zygote is diploid cell, which means that it has
twice the number of chromosomes as a gamete.
• What is the result of reproduction?
• Why do organisms bother to
reproduce? Why don't they just live
forever?
• What would eventually happen to a
species if every member suddenly
lost its ability to reproduce?
 ASEXUAL REPRODUCTION

http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/re
source/tdc02.sci.life.stru.singlecell/si
ngle-celled-organisms/
Binary Fission and Multiple Fission
• Cell division is a relatively
simple process in many
single-celled organisms.
Eventually the parent cell will
pinch apart to form two
identical daughter. A
multinucleated cell can divide
to form more than one
daughter cell. Multiple fission
is more often observed
among protists.
Asexual Modes of Reproduction
• Fission - Type of asexual
reproduction involving
the division of body into
two or more equal parts
• Budding - Type of asexual
reproduction where a
new individual arises as
an outgrowth (bud) from
its parent,
• develops organs like
those of the parent, and
then detaches itself.
 Asexual Modes of Reproduction
• filamentous alga, i.e. • Fragmentation - Type of
Spirogyra or asexual reproduction
Oedogonium, and a where the body breaks into
two or more parts, with
detached starfish arm each fragment capable of
growing lost parts as becoming a complete
individual; in animals,
example fragmentation is usually
followed by regeneration
where the missing parts are
produced. For example, a
lost arm of the starfish may
be regenerated by mitotic
cell divisions.
 Asexual Modes of Reproduction
• Sporulation - Type of
asexual reproduction
where a new individual
forms from an
aggregation of cells
surrounded by a
resistant capsule or
spore, which later on
germinates.
• Rhizopus
Sexual Reproduction

• Which is the female

frog? Male frog?
 Asexual Reproducers
http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/tdc
02.sci.life.repro.asexual/asexual-
reproducers/What type of reproduction --
asexual or sexual -- do the whiptail lizards in the
video use?

How many parents do whiptail lizards have?

How do young whiptail lizards differ from their
parents, if at all?
How much of their parent's genetic material do
whiptail lizards have?
 Types of Union of Gametes
Isogamy- fusion of similar
gametes which are usually
motile
The simplest type
In this case, both gametes
are mobile and are
absolutely identical in size
and appearance. During the
fusion they retain mobility
by flagella at the front end
of rounded or pear-shaped
body. Isogamy occurs in
lower plants — algae, fungi isogamy in Ulothrix
 Types of Union of Gametes
• Anisogamy (heterogamy)- fusion of
dissimilar gametes. In oogamy, a large
immotile gamete, the egg is fertilized by a
small motile gamete, the sperm.
• In anisogamy both gametes are mobile,
they have flagella, but differ in size. One of
them, the smaller, has more mobility and
is considered to be a male gamete.
• Another one, a little larger, is less mobile.
In its plasma, there is a certain amount of
reserve nutrients. It is considered to be a
female gamete.
• Anisogamy occurs only in lower plants,
such as in some green algae anisogamy in Gonium
(Chlamydomonas Braunii) and brown algae
(e.g. Ectocarpus)
 Oogamy
In this case, gametes sharply differ in
shape, size and character as motility.
One of them — male — is very
shallow, its protoplast consists
mainly of the nucleus and a thin layer
of the cytoplasm; in front of it there
is a small amount of plasma, from
which depart flagella.
Male gamete is actively mobile and
has a special name — spermatozoid.
Female gamete is deprived of oogamy in Sphaeroplea:
motility. It's called an egg or ovum. a — sperm; b — egg
Its major protoplast has a large
nucleus. The cytoplasm contains a
large amount of nutrients
 Oogamy
• Oogamy occurs in all higher plants and in vast
majority of lower plants.
• Male organs, in which develop spermatozoids,
are called antheridia;
• Female, in which form the egg cells, in lowest
plants are called oogonia, in higher plants —
archegonium.
• Oogonium is always a unicellular form;
archegonium is already a multicellular body
having a complex structure.
Special Terms for Sexual Reproduction
• Bisexual reproduction - Type of sexual
reproduction involving the union of gametes
from two genetically different parents
• Hermaphrodite - An individual with both male
and female reproductive tissues.
In animals “self fertilization” is not common.
In worms, a hermaphrodite needs a male to
donate sperms in order to fertilize the oocytes in
its body.
UNISEXUAL AND BISEXUAL ORGANISMS
Unisexual organisms
The organisms in which male and female reproductive
system are present in different individuals are called unisexual
organisms. We can also say that the organisms in which male
and female sexes are separate are called unisexual organisms.
For example, human beings, birds, reptiles, fish etc. papaya
Bisexual organisms or Hermaphrodites
The organisms in which both the male and female
reproductive system are present in the same individual are
called bisexual organisms or hermaphrodites. For example,
earthworm, leech, starfish, tapeworm, barnacles etc. corn
•
 Plant Reproduction

http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/re
source/tdc02.sci.life.stru.floral/floral-
arrangements/
 Plant Reproduction
• What type of reproduction -- asexual or sexual --
do most plants use?
• What nonliving force do plants rely on most often
for pollination?
• What are some of the ways in which plants
encourage or trick animals into carrying their
pollen to other plants?
• What proportion of each parent plant's genetic
material does each offspring plant have?
• Why some species might have evolved
reproductive strategies that require a lot of
energy and that allow individual organisms to
pass only half of their genes on to their
offspring?
• What benefits do you think sexual selection
might have?
• http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/tdc02.sci.l
ife.evo.redqueen/the-red-queen/

• What are the differences between the two species of

minnows featured in the video?
• Which species -- the asexual or the sexual reproducers
-- tends to be more heavily parasitized by the worm
that causes black-spot disease?
• How are the sexual reproducers able to evolve
defenses against parasites more quickly and more
effectively than their asexual counterparts?

• The genetic diversity produced by sexual reproduction

allowed the sexual fish to survive a parasite more
successfully than the asexual fish
 Summary
• In asexual reproduction, an offspring is genetically
identical to the parent,which means the offspring is a
CLONE of the parent. Sexual reproduction, on the
other hand, generally produces variation in the
offspring because this results in the recombination of
genomes from the parents’ gametes.
• Sporulation is very rare in animals and are only
exhibited in some organism like sponges.
• Isogamy may involve either flagellated gametes (as in
the case of Chlamydomonas) or nonflagellated cells or
structures (as in the case of Spirogyra)
Differences Between Asexual and
Sexual Reproduction
 Assignment
• Research on the advantages and disadvantages of
asexual and sexual reproduction.
• Organisms that are asexual can generally
reproduce faster than those that reproduce
sexually. Since evolutionary fitness and success
are measured in terms of the number of offspring
an organism produces, what evolutionary
pressures might have caused the evolution of
sexual reproduction?
• They will then submit their assignment during the
next meeting.