● The ability of living organisms to produce a new generation of themselves
● Important for evolution as genes are passed onto the next generation.
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.
Cell division is how organisms grow and repair themselves. It is also how many organisms produce
offspring. For many single-celled organisms, reproduction is a similar process. The parent cell
simply divides to form two daughter cells that are identical to the parent. In many other organisms,
two parents are involved, and the offspring are not identical to the parents. In fact, each offspring is
unique.
Reproduction is the process by which organisms give rise to offspring. It is one of the defining
characteristics of living things. There are two basic types of reproduction: asexual reproduction and
sexual reproduction.
Asexual Reproduction
Asexual reproduction involves a single parent. It results in offspring that are genetically identical to
each other and to the parent. All prokaryotes and some eukaryotes reproduce this way. There are
several different methods of asexual reproduction. They include binary fission, fragmentation, and
budding.
● Binary fission occurs when a parent cell splits into two identical daughter cells of the same
size.
● Fragmentation occurs when a parent organism breaks into fragments, or pieces, and each
fragment develops into a new organism. Starfish, like the one in Figure below, reproduce this
way. A new starfish can develop from a single ray, or arm. Starfish, however, are also capable
of sexual reproduction.
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