Sexual vs Asexual reproduction

• There are two types of reproduction in living organisms: asexual and sexual reproduction.
• Sexual reproduction is common in animals and plants and involves two parents.
• Gametes are produced (sperm and egg cell or ovum in animals, pollen and egg cell or ovum in plants) in the sex organs (testes/ovaries or anther/ovary) by meiosis (a type of cell division you will learn about later on).
• Fertilisation (fusion of male and female gamete) must take place to produce a zygote and the offspring produced are genetically different to their parents and to each other.
• Asexual reproduction is common in plants, fungi, bacteria and some small animals and it involves only one parent.

  
  

  There are no gametes involved. All new cells are

  produced by mitosis and all the offspring produced

  are genetically identical to the parent and to each

  other.
• sexual

  • Gametes involved
  • Offspring are genetically different to each

  other and the parents

  • Variation which leads to evolution
  • Fertilisation (fusion of gametes)
  • Two parents
• asexual

  • No gametes involved
  • Offspring are genetically different to each

  other and the parents

  • No variation, therefore no evolution
  • No fertilisation
  • One parent
• Humans, like many other animals, can only reproduce sexually. Many

  plants can reproduce both sexually and asexually. Flowers are the

  organs of sexual reproduction.
• Examples of asexual reproduction include strawberry plants producing

  runners, spider plants producing plantlets, aphids cloning themselves,

  budding in yeast. Gardeners often take advantage of the ways plants

  can reproduce asexually. They use runners, bulbs and tubers to produce

  more plants.
• Another type of asexual reproduction is to grow plants from

  cuttings

  A piece of the plant’s stem , with a few leaves attached, is

  cut from a healthy plant. This is planted in damp soil or

  compost, where it will grow roots and develop into a new

  plant
• advantages of sexual reproduction

  Produces variation in

  offspring

  Species can evolve
• disadvantages of sexual reproduction

  Time consuming

  Requires two parents

  Uses up a lot of energy