Chapter Outline.

Includes everything, arranged in a nice way.

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REPRODUCTION

➢ birth to the natural death- life span

➢ Life spans are not correlated with sizes
➢ No individual is immortal except Single-celled organisms

➢ Reproduction –
- biological process in which an organism gives rise to young ones (offspring) similar
to itself
- enables the continuity of the species, generation after generation

➢ Each organism has evolved its own mechanism to multiply and produce offspring:
(a) Organism’s habitat
(b) Its internal physiology
(c) Several other factors are collectively responsible for how it reproduces

➢ Asexual reproduction –
- When offspring is produced by a single parent with or without the involvement of
gamete formation
- Offspring are exact copies of their parents
- Clone: morphologically and genetically similar individuals
- common among single-celled organisms, and in plants and animals with relatively
simple organisations

- In Protists and Monerans, the parent cell divides by mitosis into two to give rise to
new individuals.
- Many single-celled organisms reproduce by binary fission
Example –
Amoeba, Paramecium
- In yeast, the division is unequal and small buds are produced, separated and give
rise to new organisms

- Encystation – Under unfavourable conditions the Amoeba withdraws its

pseudopodia and secretes a three-layered hard covering or cyst around itself
- Sporulation- busting of minute amoeba/ Pseudopodia spore into the surrounding
area

- Vegetative propagules in angiosperms:

(a) Eyes – potato
(b) Rhizome – ginger
(c) Bulbil – Agave
(d) Leaf buds – Bryophyllum
 (e) Offset – water hyacinth

- Kingdom Fungi and simple plants such as algae- special asexual reproductive
structures:
❖ Zoospores: microscopic motile structures
❖ Conidia: Penicillium
❖ Buds: Hydra
❖ Gemmules: sponge

- Fragmentation – the body breaks into distinct pieces (fragments) each fragment
grows into an adult capable of producing offspring
Example – hydra

- ‘Terror of Bengal’: water hyacinth

• aquatic plant
• most invasive weeds grow in standing water
• It drains oxygen from the water, which leads to death of fishes

- plants like: potato, sugarcane, banana, ginger, dahlia – invariably arise from the
nodes present in the modified stems of these plants, nodes come in contact with
damp soil or water, they produce roots and new plants.
- Adventitious buds arise from the notches present at margins of leaves of
Bryophyllum

➢ Sexual reproduction –
- When two parents (opposite sex) participate in the reproductive process and also
involve fusion of male and female gametes
- elaborate, complex and slow process as compared to asexual reproduction

- All organisms have to reach a certain stage of growth and maturity in their life, before
they can reproduce sexually
- juvenile phase (aka vegetative phase) – period of growth & is of variable durations in
different organisms

- Plants–the annual and biennial types: show clear cut vegetative, reproductive and
senescent phases
- In the perennial species it is very difficult to clearly define these phases

- Bamboo species: flower only once in their lifetime, generally after 50-100 years,
produce large numbers of fruits and die
- Strobilanthes kunthiana (neelakurinji): flowers once in 12 years, plant flowered
during September-October 2006

- Birds living in nature lay eggs only seasonally; Birds in captivity (as in poultry farms)-
made to lay eggs throughout the year

- The females of placental mammals exhibit cyclical changes in the activities of

ovaries, accessory ducts, hormones during the reproductive phase
• oestrus cycle – In non-primate mammals: cows, sheep, rats, deer, dogs,
tiger, etc
• menstrual cycle – In primates: monkeys, apes, and humans

- continuous breeders – Many other mammals are reproductively active throughout

their reproductive phase
- The end of reproductive phase can be considered as one of the parameters of
senescence or old age, concomitant changes in the body: slowing of metabolism

- hormones are responsible for the transitions between the three phases
- Interaction between hormones and certain environmental factors regulate the
reproductive processes

➢ Sexual reproduction may be grouped into three distinct stages:

- pre-fertilisation
• main pre-fertilisation events:
❖ gametogenesis –
✓ refers to the process of formation of the two types of gametes
– male and female
✓ Gametes are haploid cells

❖ Gamete transfer –
✓ In a majority of organisms,
o male gamete- motile
o female gamete- stationary.
✓ In Algae, bryophytes and pteridophytes, water is the medium
for gamete transfer
✓ In bisexual, self-fertilising plants (Peas) transfer of pollen
grains is relatively easy as anthers and stigma are located
close to each other
✓ Pollen grains soon after they are shed, come in contact with
the stigma in cross pollinating plants (including dioecious
plants)
✓ Successful transfer and coming together of gametes is
essential for the fertilisation

• Homogametes (isogametes) – two gametes are so similar in

appearance, not possible to categorise them into male and female
gametes
• Heterogametes – Two morphologically distinct types
Male gamete: antherozoid or sperm
female gamete: egg or ovum
• Homothallic and monoecious – bisexual condition
❖ Examples – cucurbits and coconuts, sweet potato, Chara,
Earthworm
• Heterothallic and dioecious – unisexual condition
❖ unisexual male flower is staminate – bearing stamens
❖ female is pistillate – bearing pistils
❖ Examples – papaya and date palm, Marchantia, Cockroach

• Cockroach is a unisexual species

• Bisexual animals that possess both male and female reproductive
organs are hermaphrodites

• A haploid parent produces gametes by mitotic division

Monera, fungi, algae and bryophytes – Haploid plant bodies

• Meiosis, the reduction division that occurs in a diploid plant body

to produce haploid gametes
Pteridophytes, gymnosperms, angiosperms, most of the animals –
 Diploid parental body

- Fertilisation –
• most vital event of sexual reproduction is perhaps the fusion of
gametes

• Parthenogenesis – the female gamete undergoes development to

form new organisms without fertilisation.
Examples –
rotifers, honeybees, some lizards, birds: turkey

• external fertilisation –syngamy occurs in the external medium

(water)
example –
majority of algae and fishes and amphibians
• Major disadvantage is that the offspring are extremely vulnerable to
predators.

• internal fertilisation –syngamy occurs inside the body of the

organism
Example –
Fungi, reptiles, birds, mammals, Majority of plants

• Formation of the diploid zygote is universal in all sexually reproducing

organisms
• Zygote – ensures continuity of species

- Post-fertilisation events –
• Cell divisions – increase the number of cells in the developing embryo;
• Cell differentiation – helps groups of cells to undergo certain modifications to form
specialised tissues and organs to form an organism
• In fungi and algae, zygote develops a thick wall that is resistant to dessication and
damage

• Oviparous: development of the zygote takes place outside the body of the female
parent or inside
❖ they lay fertilised/unfertilised eggs or give birth to young one
❖ In oviparous animals (reptiles and birds) the fertilised eggs covered by hard
calcareous shells are laid in a safe place in the environment.

• Viviparous animals: zygote develops into a young one inside the body of the female
organism.
❖ Because of proper embryonic care and protection, the chances of survival of
young ones is greater

• In flowering plants, the zygote is formed inside the ovule

• Zygote develops into the embryo
• ovules develop into the seed.
• The ovary develops into the fruit which develops a thick wall called pericarp
• Pericarp: protective in function.
• After dispersal, seeds germinate under favourable conditions to produce new plants.
Marchantia Chara