Asexual Reproduction

Asexual reproduction is the formation of a new individual that has the same genetic information of as its parent.

The individual is a clone, or an exact copy, of its parent. Asexual reproduction occurs in one-called organisms such as bacteria and in multicellular organisms such as plants.

There are several types of asexual reproduction, as shown in the table below.

The types of asexual reproduction are binary fission, budding, fragmentation, spore formation, and vegetative reproduction.

The splitting of a single parent cell into two equal parts that have the same copies of genetic material.

A group of rapidly dividing cells develop on an organism and breaks away to become a new organism.

A small piece of an organism breaks away from it and develop into a new individual .

Parent organism produces spores: single cells that can develop into individuals by repeated mitosis.

Special cells, usually in the stems and roots of plants, divide repeatedly to form structures that develop into a plant that is identical to the parent.

The advantages of asexual reproduction include: large colonies can out-compete other organisms for nutrients and water, large numbers of offspring reproduce very quickly.

Species can survive if the number of predators increases.

Disadvantages of asexual reproduction include: offspring compete for food and space, extreme temperatures can wipe out entire colonies, negative mutations can destroy many offspring.

Humans can help other organisms reproduce asexually. This may be done to preserve the DNA of an organism. It may also be done to make large numbers of a particular type of organism that has useful trait.

Growing new plants from the cut ends of plant stems and roots is one way that humans make clones of plants. Making clones of animals involves taking the nucleus from one type of cell and putting it into an egg cell that has had its nucleus removed.

Researchers are now using stem cells in cloning research. Stem cells are cells that can divide to form one of many different types of cells. Stem cells that come from human embryos can become any of the 200 types of cells in the human body.

Doctors are working to use stem cells to treat certain disorders such as diabetes and cancer.