Reproduction Topics

• single celled organisms
• abundant food supply
• selective adaptation
• unstable environments
• asexual reproduction
• sexual reproduction
• lifestyle requirements
• favorable climate
• optimum ph
• reproductive strategies
• adequate shelter
• fundamental feature
• gene pool
• suitable conditions
• biological process
• life stage
• supply resources
• environmental factors
• cysts
• spores

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Reproduction, Reproduction

The concept of "individual" is obviously stretched by this asexual reproductive process. ' Reproduction is the biological process by which new individual organisms are produced. Reproduction is a fundamental feature of all known life; each individual organism exists as the result of reproduction. The known methods of reproduction are broadly grouped into two main types: sexual and asexual.

Asexual reproduction is not, however, limited to single-celled organisms. Most plants have the ability to reproduce asexually.

When environmental factors are favorable, asexual reproduction is employed to exploit suitable conditions for survival such as an abundant food supply, adequate shelter, favorable climate, disease, optimum pH or a proper mix of other lifestyle requirements. Populations of these organisms increase exponentially via asexual reproductive strategies to take full advantage of the rich supply resources.

Sexual reproduction ensures a mixing of the gene pool of the species. The variations found in offspring of sexual reproduction allow some individuals to be better suited for survival and provide a mechanism for selective adaptation to occur. In addition, sexual reproduction usually results in the formation of a life stage that is able to endure the conditions that threaten the offspring of an asexual parent. Thus, seeds, spores, eggs, pupae, cysts or other "over-wintering" stages of sexual reproduction ensure the survival during unfavorable times and the organism can "wait out" adverse situations until a swing back to suitability occurs.

Sexual reproduction, he argued, was like purchasing fewer tickets but with a greater variety of numbers and therefore a greater chance of success.

The lottery principle is less accepted these days because of evidence that asexual reproduction is more prevalent in unstable environments, the opposite of what it predicts.

Source: Wikipedia > Reproduction