Sexual vs.
Asexual
Reproduction
🞆 Compare the results of uniform or diverse
offspring from sexual or asexual reproduction
🞆 Uniform offspring
🞆 Diverse offspring
🞆 Sexual reproduction
🞆 Asexual reproduction
Advantages: Sexual
Reproduction
🞆 Diverse offspring: genetic variation among
offspring
🞆 Half of the DNA comes from mom
🞆 Half of the DNA comes from dad
🞆 Due to genetic variation, individuals within a
population have slight differences
🞆 Plants – resist diseases
🞆 Traits can develop to resist harsh environments
that allows an organism survive
Sexual Reproduction
🞆 A type of reproduction in which the genetic materials
from different two cells combine, producing an
offspring
🞆 The cells that combine are called sex cells
🞆 Female – egg
🞆 Male – sperm
🞆 Fertilization: an egg cell and a sperm cell join
together
🞆 A new cell is formed and is called a zygote
Advantages: Sexual
Reproduction
🞆 Selective Breeding
🞆 Used to develop many types of
plants and animals that have
desirable traits
🞆 Agriculture/Farming: better
plants, larger animals
🞆 Desirable pets
Disadvantages: Sexual
Reproduction
🞆 Time and Energy
🞆 Organisms have to grow and develop until they are old
enough to produce sex cells
🞆 Search and find a mate
🞆 Searching can expose individuals to predators, diseases, or
harsh environmental conditions
🞆 Fertilization cannot take place during pregnancy, which can
last as long as 2 years for some mammals.
Examples: Sexual Reproduction
Asexual Reproduction
🞆 One parent: organism produces
offspring without fertilization
🞆 Uniform offspring:
🞆 Because offspring inherit all of
their DNA from one parent, they
are genetically identical to each
other and to their parent
Fission: Asexual
Reproduction
🞆 Fission: Cell division in prokaryotes that forms two
genetically identical cells
🞆 DNA is copied
🞆 The cell begins to grow longer, pulling the two
copies apart
🞆 The cell membrane pinches inward in the middle
of the cell
🞆 Cell splits to form two new uniform, identical
offspring
🞆 Examples: bacteria, Ecoli, pond critters
Budding: Asexual
Reproduction
🞆 Budding: a new organism grows by mitosis and
cell division on the body of its parent
🞆 The bud, or offspring is identical to the parent
🞆 The bud, when large enough, can break off of
the parent and live on its own
🞆 Offspring may remain attached and form a
colony
🞆 Examples: Yeast, Hydra, cactus
Regeneration: Asexual
Reproduction
🞆 Regeneration: occurs when an offspring
grows from a piece of its parent.
🞆 Producing new organisms: Sea Stars
🞆 Sea urchins, sea cucumber, sponges,
and planarians
🞆 Producing new body parts: Gecko
🞆 Newts, tadpoles, crabs, hydra, and
zebra fish
Vegetative Propagation: Asexual
🞆 Vegetative Propagation: uniform offspring
grow from a part of a parent plant
🞆 Parent plants sends out runners
🞆 Where the runner touches the ground, roots
can grow
🞆 A new plant is produced even if the runner is
broken apart
🞆 Each new plant is uniform and identical to the
parent.
🞆 Examples: strawberries, potatoes, ivy,
crabgrass
Advantages: Asexual Reproduction
🞆 Enables organisms to reproduce
without a mate
🞆 No wasted time and energy
🞆 Enables some organisms to
rapidly reproduce a large number
of uniform offspring
Disadvantages: Asexual
Reproduction
🞆 Because their offspring are identical, there is no
genetic variation that can give an organism a
better chance for survival
🞆 Example: If a weed killer can kill the parent, it
will also kill the offspring
🞆 A whole species can be wiped out from a disease
🞆 Dangerous mutations in DNA – if the parent has
the mutation in their DNA, the offspring will have
it too.
Examples: Asexual Reproduction
Activity:
🞆 Create a creature that reproduces asexually.
🞆 Draw the creature
🞆 Describe how the creature reproduces asexually
🞆 Describe 1 advantage of reproducing this way
🞆 Describe 1 disadvantage of reproducing this way
🞆 Name your creature
🞆 How the uniform offspring of your creature
