How Do Organisms Reproduce - Variation and Asexual Reproduction

Vocabulary flashcards covering cellular DNA copying, variation, and modes of asexual reproduction including binary fission, multiple fission, fragmentation, budding, regeneration, and spore formation.

Reproduction

The process by which living organisms are able to produce young ones of their own kind, essential for the existence and continuity of a species.

DNA

The macromolecule containing cellular components of hereditary transmission in living organisms.

Replication of DNA

The process of formation of a new DNA strand from older ones to transmit characters to newly formed reproductive cells.

Variation

Differences in characteristics among individuals of the same species, or among different genera or species.

Asexual Reproduction

The production of offspring by a single parent without the fusion of gametes, fertilisation, and transfer of genetic materials between individuals.

Binary Fission

The division of a parent cell into two small, nearly equal-sized identical daughter cells under favourable conditions.

Multiple Fission

A method of fission in which many individuals are formed from a single parent organism, occurring under unfavourable conditions.

Cyst

A protective covering developed over a unicellular organism during unfavourable conditions in multiple fission.

Fragmentation

A mode of asexual reproduction where a multicellular organism with simple body organization breaks into small pieces (fragments), each growing into a new individual.

Spirogyra

A filamentous alga that reproduces asexually through the process of fragmentation.

Budding

The production of a new individual from an outgrowth or bud on the parent individual under favourable conditions.

Budding in Hydra

A reproductive process where repeated mitotic divisions create a lateral outgrowth (bud) that enlarges, assumes parent shape, detaches, and grows into a new individual.

Budding in Yeast

A process where a small budlike outgrowth forms at one end of the parent cell, receives one of two daughter nuclei, and detaches after a base constriction appears.

Regeneration

The ability of an organism to regenerate lost body parts removed by injury or autotomy, or to give rise to an entire organism from a cut part.

Planaria

A organism capable of regenerating its complete body from a severed part using specialized proliferating cells.

Spore

A single or several-celled structure with a thick resistant wall that detaches from the parent organism and germinates directly or indirectly into a new individual.

Spore Formation in Rhizopus

A process of asexual reproduction in bread mold where unicellular spores form inside a sporangium and disperse to germinate under favourable conditions.