Asexual reproduction. Most people think of reproduction as requiring a female and a male to create new offspring. However, there are times when only one parent is needed to produce more offspring.
In asexual reproduction, an organism reproduces offspring on its own. There is only one parent, and the offspring will inherit all of its genes from that single parent. The offspring and the parent are genetically identical.
There is no genetic variation. You might be familiar with some organisms that reproduce asexually, like single-celled bacteria and paramecium. But multicellular organisms can also reproduce asexually, like strawberries, hydra, starfish, and even some species of sharks. There are different ways that asexual reproduction can occur.
One way is through binary fission. This occurs mostly in single-celled organisms like bacteria. Genetic material gets copied and then the organism splits in half, creating two organisms that are identical to the original organism. Mitosis is very similar.
In single-celled eukaryotes, these are organisms with a nucleus, they have a form of binary fission called mitosis. Like binary fission, mitosis involves the copying of the genetic material and the splitting of the cell. However, it also includes the splitting of the nucleus.
Another form is through budding. This happens when a new organism develops from a growth or a bud on the side of the organism. The new growth has the same genetic information as the parent and eventually detaches from the parent and grows on its own.
You might have seen vegetative reproduction in your own garden. Many plants are able to reproduce without releasing seeds or spores. They have specialized features that allow them to pass on their genetic information to their offspring.
For example, strawberries produce runners that allow new plants at the end of them to grow. Bulb plants like garlic are able to split their bulbs, creating more plants. Fragmentation occurs when an organism splits or loses parts of its body. The remaining parts can grow and form a new organism.
This can be seen in starfish. When they lose an arm, they can grow it back and the separated arm can grow into a new starfish as well. Some animals like fish Birds and reptiles are able to switch from sexual reproduction to asexual reproduction They do this by creating offspring from unfertilized eggs This is called parthenogenesis.
The genetic material of the offspring are identical to the parents. For example, in January 2017, a leopard shark in an Australian aquarium that had no contact with a male shark gave birth to offspring that were genetically identical to her. There are some advantages and disadvantages to reproducing asexually. For the advantages, they can reproduce at a rapid rate and quickly increase their population.
However, due to no genetic variation, if the environment changes, it will become more difficult to adapt to that new change. And another disadvantage is that if a new predator or disease is able to kill one of the organisms, then it will be able to kill all the organisms in the population. So in summary, asexual reproduction has one parent, the offspring are genetically identical to it, there is no genetic variation, it allows for a quick increase in the population, but it's more difficult to adapt to a change in environment, and a predator or disease could more easily destroy the entire population.