How Do Organisms Reproduce

Introduction:
• The production of new organisms from the existing organism of the
same species is known as reproduction.
• Reproduction is the creation of new living beings. (From existing
living beings)
• It involves the transmission of genetic material from the parental
generation to the next generation.
• Process of reproduction is essential for existence and continuity of a
species.

Types of Reproduction
There are many ways in which new organisms are produced from their parents. All the different
ways of reproduction can be divided into two main groups:
(a) Asexual
• Uniparental/Somatogenic.
• Some special structure formed for reproduction other than
gametes.

Reproduction

(b) Sexual
• Biparental
• Gamete formation and fusion take place.

Asexual Reproduction
Asexual reproduction is the formation of new individuals without involving the formation and
fusion of gametes.
Modes of Asexual Reproduction
• Fission
• Budding
• Spore Formation
• Regeneration
• Fragmentation
• Vegetative propagation
(a) Fission
• Many single-celled organisms like protozoa and bacteria just split (or break) into two
identical halves during cell division, leading to the creation of new organisms. This is
called fission.
• In the process of fission, an unicellular organism splits (or divides) to form two (or
more) new organisms.
• The reproductive unit is the whole body.
• It is seen in bacteria and protozoans.

Fission is of the following types:

 § Binary fission
§ Multiple fission

Binary Fission
The parent organism divides to form two new organisms.
For example, Amoeba reproduces by binary fission, which
takes place not in any specific plane (irregular binary
fission). 1 Parent Cell 2 Nucleus Divides
• Longitudinal binary fission
§ Euglena undergoes longitudinal binary fission.
§ Leishmania another protozoan undergoes
longitudinal binary fission.
3 Cytoplasm 4 Two Daughter
§ Transverse binary fission Divides Cells
Amoeba showing binary fission
§ Paramecium undergoes transverse binary fission.

Multiple Fission
• In this, the parent body divides
into many
daughter cells, simultaneously.
• This usually happens under
unfavorable
conditions.
• For example in Plasmodium, that
causes malaria,
the parent cell divides into many
daughter cells
simultaneously by multiple
fission.
• When the favorable conditions arrive, the cyst enclosing many daughter cells breaks
open, releasing daughter cells.
• Each daughter cell forms a new organism.
• Other example of organisms showing multiple fission: Algae, sporozoans

(b) Budding
• One or more unicellular or multi-cellular outgrowths,
called buds are formed on or inside the parental body.

• These buds develop into tiny individuals and when

fully mature, detach from the parent body and become
new independent individuals.

• It is seen in sponges, Hydra and yeast. Budding in Hydra

 • Hydra uses regenerative cells for reproduction in the process of Single Cytoplasm
budding. A bud develops as an outgrowth due to repeated cell Cell Nucleus

division at one specific site.

• Yeast reproduces by budding. In yeast, first a bud appears on the Vacuole

outside of the cell wall. The nucleus of parent then divides into Reserve
Food Bodies
two parts and one part of the nucleus moves into the bud. The
budding in yeast often takes place so fast that the first buds start
forming their own buds and all of them remain attached to the
parent yeast cell forming a chain of yeast cells.
Budding in
yeast cells

(c) Spore Formation

• In many simple multicellular organisms, the thread-
like structures that develop on the bread are the hyphae
of the bread mould (Rhizopus).
At the tip of the hyphae tiny blob-on-a-stick structures
are present that are involved in reproduction.
• The blobs are sporangia, which contain cells or spores
that can eventually develop into new Rhizopus
individuals.
• The spores are covered by thick walls that protect them until they come into contact
with another moist surface and can begin to grow.
• Thus, spores are a kind of seeds in plants.
• Spore formation method is used by unicellular organisms such as bacteria and also
multicellular fungi such as Penicillium, Rhizopus, Mushrooms etc.
• Non flowering plants like moss and fern also reproduce by spore formation.
• The production of new plants from a small piece of plant tissue (or cells) removed from
the growing tips of a plant in suitable growth medium (called culture solution) is called
tissue culture.

(d) Regeneration
• It is the phenomenon which brings about repair of the damaged cells/tissues or body
parts.
• Many fully differentiated organisms have the ability to give rise to
new individual organisms from their body parts.
• That is, if the individual is somehow cut or broken up into many
pieces, many of these pieces grow into separate individuals.
• For example, simple animals like Hydra and Planaria can be cut into
any number of pieces and each piece grows into a complete organism.
• Regeneration is carried out by specialized cells.
• These cells proliferate and make large numbers of cells.
• From the mass of cells, different cells undergo changes to become
various cell types and tissues.
 • These changes take place in an organized sequence referred to as development.
• However, regeneration is not the same as reproduction, since most organisms would
not normally depend on being cut up to be able to reproduce.
• In complex, multicellular organisms, specialized cells makes up tissue, organs and
organ systems. Since they have a high degree of dissociation in their body, they cannot
be reproduced from cut body parts by the process of regeneration.

(e) Fragmentation
• Fragmentation is seen in multi-cellular organisms with relatively
simple body organization.
• These pieces or fragments grow into new individuals.
• The parental body breaks into two or more fragments by wave action
or by death and decay of older parts.
• For example, Spirogyra breaks up into smaller pieces upon
maturation.

• It is also seen in sponges, sea anemones and other coelenterates and flatworms.
• In echinoderms like starfish, even one arm with a part of central disc can develop into
a whole animal.
• The main difference between fission and fragmentation is that in fission, a unicellular
organism breaks up to form two (or more) daughter organisms. Whereas, in
fragmentation, a multicellular organism breaks up to form two or more daughter
organisms.

(f) Vegetative Propagation

• There are many plants in which parts like the root, stem and leaves develop into new
plants under appropriate conditions.
• In vegetative propagation, new plants are obtained from the parts of old plants (like
stem, roots and
leaves), without the help of any reproductive organs.
• Vegetative Propagation of following types- (a) Natural and (b) Artificial

Natural
• For example in Bryophyllum, buds produced in
the
notches along the leaf margin fall on the soil
and
develop into new plants. Also, the green grass
grows
in the fields after rains from the dry, old stems
Leaf of Bryophyllum with buds
of grass
plants present in the fields, by the method of
vegetative propagation.
• Vegetative propagation can be observed in stem of plants too. For example, potato
displays
 vegetative propagation in its tuber. A tuber is a thickened,
underground stem of a plant which is
swollen with stored food. The tuber has number of buds
(eyes). Potato tuber is an underground stem of the plant.
Potato tuber can be used for the vegetative reproduction
of potato plants. Each potato tuber can reproduce more
than one plant. Potato has many buds on its body which
act as organ for vegetative reproduction. When this tuber
with the bud is planted in the soil, then the various buds
of the tuber start growing to form new potato plants.
Potato showing its eyes
(bud)

Artificial

(a) Grafting
• In this method, stems of two different plants (one with roots and the other without roots)
are joined together, which then grows as a single plant.
• The cut stem with roots is called as stock, which makes the lower part of the plant.
• The other cut part of stem that is without roots is called as scion, which forms upper
part of the plant.
• Cambium layer of scion should be in contact with cambium of stock, for the growth of
plant to take place.
• Grafting method is mainly used for fruit trees like apple, peach, apricot, pear, mango etc.