New News Biology #52

Sexual vs Asexual Reproduction

Plants can rely on both sexual and asexual reproduction, but most animals have to rely on sexual reproduction, while bacteria all reproduce asexually.

Sexual Reproduction:

Key point is the fusion of male and female gametes, which is called fertilization. Because your DNA is inherited from both your mother and your father, you’re genetically different, and over multiple generations, a lot of variation will be introduced into the family tree.

The term ‘gametes’ can mean eggs and sperm in animals, or eggs and pollen in flowering plants. The gametes only have half of the genetic material required to form a fully functional human cell, so when two of them are combined (or fused), then it can form a functional cell.

Asexual Reproduction:

Only one parent, and doesn’t involve gametes at all. There is no mixing of genetic material, so there will be no genetic variation, so all the offspring will be identical clones of the parent organism.