Asexual Reproduction in Plants

Natural vegetative reproduction

● Natural vegetative propagation involves bulbs, tubers, rhizomes, and runners.

● Bulbs​ occur when parts of the roots split and each part develops into a new bulb.
● Tubers​ are formed when an underground stem forms a bulb.
● Runners​ occur when a horizontal stem develops from the vertical stem of a
grown plant and extends above and along the ground.
● Rhizomes​ are thick, underground stems which, produce upright stems with
leaves, each of which becomes an independent plant.

Artificial vegetative reproduction

● Cutting​ is a method when a piece of the stem is cut from a plant. When placed in
moist soil, the piece of stem can develop new roots, which will grow in a new
similar plant.
 ● Layering​ is a method wherein a low branch of the plant is bent down close to the
ground and covered in moist soil in such a way that its growing tip is above the
soil.

Sexual Reproduction in Plants

● During pollination, the pollen grains from the anther is being carried to the pistil of
the flower.
● Right after pollination, the pollen grain starts to fertilize the ovule inside the ovary
of the flower that leads to the production of a diploid zygote in the form of seeds.
● The seed eventually forms the entire plant and the cycle repeats itself as shown
below.

Asexual Reproduction in Animals

● Fragmentation
o It is a process that forms new organism from a fragment of the parent
individual.
 ● Parthenogenesis
o This happens when the unfertilized egg cell can still form the new
individual even without the presence of a sperm cell.

(Caption from left to right; (1)A sponge is capable of undergoing fragmentation for its
mode of reproduction; (2) Insect eggs that exhibit parthenogenesis; (3) Common land
snail that exhibits hermaphroditism.)

Sexual Reproduction in Animals

● For animals, sexual reproduction starts with the production of haploid sex cells
through ​meiosis​. Fertilization happens between the sperm and the egg cell to
produce a fertilized egg cell. The fertilized egg will undergo series
of ​mitosis​ turning into a zygote.

Self-fertilization

● In lower form of animals like invertebrates, sexual reproduction happens

through ​self-fertilization​, in which an animal's sperm fertilizes its own eggs.

Hermaphroditism

● Hermaphroditism​ is a different form of sexual reproduction. Like most

organisms who can reproduce asexually, hermaphrodites also involve only one
parent to be able to reproduce. However, the reason why hermaphroditism is still
 considered as sexual reproduction because it involves gametes of the individual
parent.

PLANT REPRODUCTION

ANIMAL REPRODUCTION

What is cell cycle?

a. The ​cell cycle ​pertains to the processes happening within the cell as it ​prepares and
executes cell division.
b. Almost all eukaryotic have ​three major phases ​under the cell cycle, i.e., (a)
interphase, mitotic phase, and cytokinesis.
 i. ​Interphase ​is the longest phase which makes up 90 percent of the cell cycle. It
consists of three phases.
1. ​G1 phase ​is the stage when the cell starts to grow. The growth is
mostly attributed to the ​doubling of water ​content, the organelles, and
other biomolecules in the cell.
2. ​Synthesis phase ​allows an exact copy of the DNA to be synthesized.
3. ​During the ​G2 phase ​, the cell continues to grow and prepare for cell
division by producing proteins important for chromosome and mitotic
spindle formation.
4. ​The ​G0 phase ​is a special phase where the cell is considered to be in a
resting state ​(from division).
5. ​Cell cycle checkpoints ​are essential for checking the specific
conditions necessary for the proper reproduction of the cells.
There are three major cell cycle checkpoints.
a. ​The ​G1 checkpoint, near the end of G1, primarily checks if the
cell is of the proper size and nutrients for division.
b. ​The ​G2 checkpoint, found near the end of the G2 phase also
checks if the cell is of a proper size for division and if the DNA is
properly replicated.
c. ​The ​metaphase checkpoint ​is found in metaphase, during
mitosis and checks if the spindles are properly attached.

What are the events that facilitate cell division? How does the cytoplasm divide?

a. Cellular content divides during the ​mitotic phase ​or ​mitosis. ​Mitosis has five stages.
Mitosis is immediately followed by or simultaneously occurs with cytokinesis.
i. ​Prophase ​involves the start of the disintegration of the nucleoli and the nuclear
membrane and the condensation of chromatin into visible chromosomes.
ii. ​Prometaphase ​includes the ​disappearance ​of the nuclear membrane and the
formation of kinetochores.
iii. ​Metaphase ​involves the centrosomes being completely located on the
opposite poles of the cell. Chromosomes are centrally aligned within a region of
the cell known as the ​metaphase plate.
iv. ​Anaphase ​involves the ​separation ​of the sister chromatids. Each sister
chromatid is now considered as a single chromosome during this stage.
v. ​Telophase,​ the final stage of mitosis, is when microtubules ​detach ​from the
kinetochore. Chromosomes start to ​uncoil ​creating less​ ​distinct finger-like
projections.

b. ​Cytokinesis ​refers to the actual division of the cell in between its two poles that have
the same cytosolic and nuclear content to produce daughter cells.
This process begins at the ​end of anaphase.
i. ​In ​animal cells,​ a ​cleavage furrow ​forms. This furrow starts as a groove along the
cell membrane’s surface and then pinches up to the cell’s center.
ii. ​In ​plant cells,​ the cleavage furrow does not form. Instead, a mass of cell wall
material is formed called the ​cell plate. ​This plate formation starts in the middle of the
cell plate and elongates outwardly.

What is meiosis? What type of cells undergoes meiotic division? What types of
cells are produced from the meiotic division?

a. ​Meiosis ​is the type of division that produces haploid (N) sex cells or gametes.
i. Having half of the complete number of chromosomes allows the fusion of male
and female sex cells to combine and produce an offspring with the same number
of chromosomes as the complete set
(2N), which is diploid.
ii. Similar to mitosis, the cell undergoes interphase in the beginning and
cytokinesis in the end. However, interphase is immediately followed by two
consecutive nuclear divisions called ​meiosis I ​and ​meiosis II.
 iii. One cell produces four daughter cells after meiosis.

What are the unique events that take place during meiosis I?

a. ​Meiosis I ​involves different unique events that do not take place during mitotic
division.
i. Pair of chromosomes called ​homologous chromosomes ​pair up.
These are chromosomes with ​similar length and centromere position.
Essentially, they have the ​same set of genes.
ii. ​Synapsis ​is the term used to describe the close association between the
members of the homologous pairs. During synapsis of diploid organisms, the pair
of chromosomes are referred to as the ​tetrads​, because it has ​four chromatids.
This group of chromosomes that undergo synapsis form a ​synaptonemal
complex.
iii. ​Crossing over or genetic recombination ​also takes place during the first
meiotic division. This allows the exchange of genetic material between the
maternal and paternal members of the homologous pair.
Chiasmata ​is the term used to refer to the intersecting region of the
chromosomes under genetic recombination.

How do the chromosomes separate during the first meiotic division?

a. Meiosis I has the same set of events as mitosis, only that the distinguishing stages
take place during Prophase I.
i. ​Prophase I ​involves the disintegration of the ​nuclear membrane ​and nucleoli.
Microtubules ​also start to attach with ​kinetochores ​to pull the chromosomes
towards the metaphase plate. Prophase I, which typically lasts for days, is the
longest stage in meiosis. Furthermore, this stage also involves the ​synapsis ​and
crossing over ​of chromosomes.
ii. ​Metaphase I ​involves the alignment of the homologous pairs at the metaphase
plate. Within a single homologous pair, one homologue is attached to the spindle
fibers of one pole, and the other homologue is similarly attached however with
the opposite pole.
iii. ​Anaphase I ​involves the spindle fibers pulling of the members of the
homologous chromosomes (instead of the sister chromatids) toward the opposite
poles of the cell.
iv. ​Telophase I ​involves each member of the duplicated homologous
chromosomes reaches the opposite poles. After cytokinesis, ​two​ ​daughter
haploid cells ​are produced. Since the number of chromosomes is halved from
parent to daughter cells, meiosis I is also referred to as “reductive​ division ​”.

How do the chromosomes separate during the first meiotic division?

a. The second meiotic division is almost similar to the mitotic division. Thus, meiosis II is
also described as the ​“equational division”​.
b. ​Meiosis II ​starts with the two daughter cells from the first meiotic division.
Both of these cells will undergo the second meiotic division. The primary goal of the
second meiotic division is to
i. ​Prophase II ​involves the continued condensation of the chromosomes. Note
that the chromosomes are duplicated at this point.
ii. ​Metaphase II ​involves the alignment of the chromosomes in just one column.
This is different from metaphase I, where the homologous chromosomes form
two columns in the metaphase plate.
iii. ​Anaphase II ​involves the separation of the members of the sister chromatids,
and they move to the opposite poles.
iv. ​Telophase II ​involves the single chromosomes reach the opposite poles
followed by cytokinesis of the cells forming two daughter cells.
There are four resulting daughter cells which may differentiate into functional
gametes.