16.

Reproduction(Asexual Reproduction)

 Asexual reproduction does not involve sex cells for fertilization

 Only one parent is required so there is no fusion of gametes and no mixing of genetic
information
 As a result, the offspring are genetically identical to the parent and to each other.
 Asexual reproduction is defined as a process resulting in genetically identical offspring
from one parent

Bacteria

1. Bacteria are tiny single-celled organisms. They reproduce by a process called binary
fission, produce exact genetic copies of themselves
2. In binary fission, one bacterium grows and copies its DNA coil which carries its genetic
information. Then the bacterium completely divides with one DNA coil in the parent and
one in the daughter bacterium.
3. Each bacterium can undergo binary fission once every 20 minutes making them able to
reproduce massive numbers from one parent in very little time.

Fungi:

1. Fungi are multicellular organisms that grow long threads called hyphae on pieces of food.
2. There are two types of hyphae, reproductive and feeding hyphae.
3. Reproductive hyphae grow vertically above the food material. At the top of the hyphae,
there is a spherical bag in which many spores are grown called sporangium.
4. Spores being produced in the sporangia are reproductive structures that can grow into
another fungus. At some point, the sporangium will burst open dispersing the spores into
the air. If a spore falls on an area of favorable conditions (food – water – air) it will
germinate and grow into a new identical fungus.

Runners (stolons) and rhizomes:

1. Some plants naturally produce side branches with plantlets on them e.g. spider plant
2. Other plants, such as strawberries, produce runners with plantlets on them.
3. Rhizomes grows under the ground
Bulbs:

1. Many plants naturally develop underground food storage organs that later develop into the
following year’s plants – potato tubers and daffodil bulbs are examples of this.

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 Artificial vegetation:

o Tissue culture:

 It uses tiny pieces from the parent plant, rather than cuttings.
 Sterile agar jelly with plant hormones and lots of nutrients are needed.
 Tissue culture is more expensive and more difficult than taking cuttings .

o Cuttings
 Putting the cut end of a shoot into water or moist earth.
 Roots grow from the base of the stem into the soil while the shoot continues to grow and
produce leaves

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 Sexual Reproduction
1. It is a process involving the fusion of two gametes (sex cells) to form a zygote and
the production of offspring that are genetically different from each other.
2. Fertilization: is the fusion of gamete nuclei.
Gametes & Zygotes
 A gamete is a sex cell (in animals: sperm and ovum; in plants pollen nucleus and ovule)
 Gametes differ from normal cells as they contain half the number of chromosomes found
in other body cells - they have a haploid nucleus
 This is because they only contain one copy of each chromosome, rather than the two
copies found in other body cells
 In human beings, a normal body cell contains 46 chromosomes but each gamete
contains 23 chromosomes
 When the male and female gametes fuse, they become a zygote (fertilised egg cell)
 This contains the full 46 chromosomes, half of which came from the father and half from
the mother – the zygote has a diploid nucleus.

Enlist advantages and disadvantages of sexual reproduction

Advantages Disadvantages

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 Flowers & Pollination
 Flowers are the reproductive organ of the plant
 They usually contain both male and female reproductive parts
 Plants produce pollen which contains a nucleus inside that is the male gamete
 Unlike the male gamete in humans (sperm), pollen is not capable of locomotion (moving
from one place to another)
 This means plants have to have mechanisms in place to transfer pollen from the anther to
the stigma
 This process is known as pollination and there are two main mechanisms by which it
occurs: transferred by insects (or other animals like birds) or transferred by wind
 The structure of insect and wind-pollinated flowers are slightly different as each is adapted
for their specific function

Label parts of insect-pollinated flower

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Label parts of wind-pollinated flower

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 Pollens
 The pollen produced by insect and wind-pollinated flowers is also different:
 Insect pollinated flowers produce smaller amounts of larger, heavier pollen
grains that often contain spikes or hooks on the outside so they are better
able to stick to insects
 Wind pollinated flowers produce large amounts of small, lightweight pollen
grains that are usually smooth

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 Self & Cross-Pollination
 Cross-pollination

 Occurs when the pollen from one plant is transferred to the stigma of another plant of the
same species
 This is the way most plants carry out pollination as it improves genetic variation

 Self-pollination .
 Occasionally, the pollen from a flower can land on its own stigma or on the stigma of
another flower on the same plant – this is known as self-pollination

 Reduces genetic variety of the offspring as all the gametes come from the same parent
 Lack of variation in the offspring is a disadvantage if environmental conditions change, as
it is less likely that any offspring will have adaptations that suit the new conditions well
 On the other hand, cross-pollination relies completely on the presence of pollinators and
this can be a problem if those pollinators are missing – this doesn’t apply to wind-
pollinated plants

Fertilisation
1) As the pollen has no ‘tail’ to swim to the ovary of a plant, in order to reach the ‘female’
nucleus in the ovary it has to grow a pollen tube
2) This only happens if the pollen grain has landed on the right kind of stigma (i.e. of the same
species as the flower the pollen came from)
3) The nucleus inside the pollen grain slips down the tube as it grows down the style towards
the ovary
4) The ovary contains one or more ovules, each contains an ovum with a female nucleus that
a male pollen nucleus can fuse with
5) Once the nuclei have joined together, that ovule has been fertilized and a zygote has been
formed
6) The zygote will start to divide and eventually form a seed within the ovule
7) As different plants have different numbers of ovules, this explains why different fruits
(which develop from the ovary) have different numbers of seeds (which develop from the
ovules)

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 Germination & Factors Affecting Germination

Germination is the start of growth in the seed.

Factors Affecting Germination

 Three factors are required for successful germination:
1) Water – allows the seed to swell up and the enzymes in the embryo to start working
so that growth can occur
2) Oxygen – so that energy can be released for germination
3) Optimum temperature – germination improves as temperature rises (up to a
maximum) as the reactions which take place are controlled by enzymes
 As carbon dioxide is not necessary for germination but also does not inhibit it, it makes no
difference whether it is present or not

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 Investigating Germination

1)Use of water in seedling

• Most seeds, when first dispersed, contain very little water.

• In this dehydrated state, the stored food has not been used up as the metabolism is slow.
• The dry seeds can resist extreme temperature and desiccation (dryness or drought)

Seed must absorb water for the metabolic changes required for metabolism.

• The water that reaches to embryo and cotyledons is used to:

1) Activate enzymes in the seed.

 stored starch sugar

 Proteins amino acids.

2) Transport the sugar (in solution) from the cotyledons to growing regions and salts
from the soil to shoots

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 2)Use of Oxygen
• Early stages of germination are probably anaerobic( testa is not permeable to oxygen)
• When Testa is soaked or spilt open allows oxygen to enter.
• The oxygen (used in aerobic respiration) provides:
1. Energy for many chemical reactions involved in mobilizing food reserves
2. Energy for making new cytoplasm and cell walls of the growing seedling
3) Importance of temperature
• Germination occurs more rapidly at high temperature, up to about 40 o C.
• Above 45 o C, the enzymes in the cells are denatured and seedling would be killed.
• Low temperature 0-4 o C, germination may not start at all.
• However, there is a considerable range of temperature at which seeds of different species
germinate

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