TABLE OF CONTENT
- Nature & meaning
- Types and traits
- Comparison chart
- Key differences point
- Conclusion
MEANING
Sexual and asexual reproduction are the two process which forms the basis of our life or in which our development of body is dependent from a period of young ones to an adult. Environment and surroundings gave livings beings the ability to develops and regrow their young ones into an adult ones in order to prevent the survival of the species. All the living beings that surround us have the ability to reproduce their young ones in their habitat.
Reproduction is a process by which organisms develop to grow into a fully developed adult or it allows organisms to regenerate themselves from the parental body. It is more of a biological process that happens to be seen when the birth of new offspring takes place from its parents.
Generally, there are two kinds of reproduction that appear in living beings i.e., sexual and asexual reproduction.
So, in this article, we will be discussing the importance, types, and key points of difference between sexual and asexual reproduction. Moreover, we will also be shedding some light upon the comparison chart too where we will be getting to know the relationship between sexual and asexual reproduction in terms of their characteristics.
TYPES AND TRAITS
Sexual reproduction:
This is one of the methods of reproduction wherein offspring are produced from two different genders of a parent or we can also say, sexual reproduction is a process by which the production of progeny takes place via the fusion of gametes from both the parent.
Sexual reproduction is a much-complicated process as it comprises of lots of complexity such as the occurrence of this process followed by the haploid set of chromosomes which includes half the no. of chromosomes that result in the formation of gametes.
Further, the gamete from a male (sperm) and from the female (ovum) combine to form a fertilized cell known as a zygote and this is only possible due to sexual reproduction.
Asexual reproduction:
The process in which only a single parent is involved in the production of progeny is known as asexual reproduction. In this process, all prokaryotes and some eukaryotes or mainly unicellular organisms such as archaea, bacteria, and some plants are able to reproduce.
Moreover, not much energy is required during the reproduction phase in asexual reproduction. Also, the production of progeny through this method is very effective and rapid as just a small span of time is required and this falls in one of its advantages.
The asexual mode of reproduction does not involve any fusion of gametes or any fertilization process but it produces genetically identical offspring which are the exact clone of the parent body.
COMPARISON CHART
Sexual and Asexual Reproduction
| BASIS | SEXUAL REPRODUCTION | ASEXUAL REPRODUCTION |
| Process | Sexual reproduction is a bi-parental process. | Whereas asexual reproduction is a uniparental process. |
| Appears | This process appears to be seen mostly in multicellular organisms and in some plants. | On the other hand, this process mainly occurs in unicellular organisms and in some eukaryotic beings too. |
| Cell divisibility | In this mode of reproduction, both the meiosis and mitosis methods of cell division can be observed. | While, in this case, there is only one cell division method is being carried of which is mitosis itself. |
| Chromosomes variant | In a sexual method, haploid sets of chromosomes are produced throughout the whole process. | Diploid sets of chromosomes are produced during the reproduction process. |
| Gametes involvement | Gametes are involved during the process that gave rise to zygote in which male gamete is known as sperm and female gamete is called ovum(eggs). | No involvement of gametes is seen in the asexual mode of reproduction. |
| Sex organs | In the sexual process, sex organs are present and they have formulated structure. | While in the asexual method, sex organs are absent. |
| Fertilization | The process of fertilization occurs within which fusion of gametes takes place. | Whereas, on the other hand, the fertilization process didn’t take place in asexual reproduction. |
| Types | Various types through which asexual reproduction takes place are budding, binary fission, vegetative propagation, spore formation, and fragmentation. | And if we talk about sexual reproduction then its subtypes are autogamy, allogamy, conjugation, and syngamy. |
| Rapid process | Sexual reproduction is a very complicated process and that is the reason it takes so much amount of time to reproduce young ones. | On the contrary, asexual reproduction is a very speedy and quick process in order to reproduce. |
| Genetics characters | Genetic characters are majorly distinct from person to person or offspring are genetically different. | In contrast, the asexual mode of reproduction produces identical offspring in terms of genes. |
| Evolution and variation | Sexual reproduction has evolutionary importance as it brings out distinct variations in genetic information. | Whereas, asexual reproduction is not so significant in terms of evolution. |
| Examples | Various examples of a sexual mode of reproduction are seen in humans, plants, and other multicellular organisms. | While unicellular or prokaryotic organisms are examples of asexual reproduction but a slight proportion of it can be seen in eukaryotic too as like fungi and bacteria. |
SEXUAL AND ASEXUAL REPRODUCTION : KEY DIFFERENCES
Various key points that we observe in sexual and asexual reproduction are as the following mention below:
- Firstly, in sexual reproduction fertilization process follows prior to the production of offspring but on the contrary, not such fertilization phenomena occur in asexual reproduction.
- And second is, in a sexual mode of reproduction the progeny is not identical to its parent whereas in asexual reproduction the progeny is just an exact clone of its parent.
- Moreover, the process of sexual reproduction is not so time effective as it needs an ample amount of time period to reproduce the young one while the asexual mode is just opposite to it or vice-versa in terms of quick development of offspring.
- Lastly, sexual reproduction involves both parents of different gender and mostly it is seen in multicellular organisms but in contrast, asexual mode involves only a single parent which further gives rise to the new individual body which is unicellular generally.
CONCLUSION
In the above article, we concluded out of it that all livings beings needed to survive in order to protect their class, species, and genus no matter through which method they reproduce whether sexual and asexual reproduction and each of the mode have their own genetics and evolutionary importance in this universe.
If you to gather more information on such topics, please visit this article of ours animal cell and plant cell in which we have discussed about the characters and traits of plants and animals.
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