REPRODUCTION IN

ORGANISMS

PREPARED BY
Rakesh S Gour
Ph.D. (Biotechnology)

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REPRODUCTION IN ORGANISMS AIIMS/NEET/ALL MEDICAL ENTRANCES
Reproduction:
• Defined as a biological process in which an
organism gives rise to young ones (offspring)
similar to itself.
• The reproduction methods are broadly
categorised into 2 types namely – Asexual
reproduction and sexual reproduction.
(A) Asexual reproduction:
• Offspring's produced by single parents.
• Without involvement of gamete formation
Offspring's are genetically identical to their
parents called clone.

REPRODUCTION IN ORGANISMS AIIMS/NEET/ALL MEDICAL ENTRANCES

• Asexual reproduction also
known as agamogenesis or
agamogeny.
• E.g. Amoeba, Euglena, Hydra,
Potato, Bryophyllum, etc.

REPRODUCTION IN ORGANISMS AIIMS/NEET/ALL MEDICAL ENTRANCES

Type of asexual reproduction:
• Multiplication occurs by Cell division (only mitotic
division) as a method of asexual reproduction as
in Protista and Monera.
1. Binary fission:
- It is the division of the parent body into two
or more daughter individuals.
- It is of 3 types:
(a) Binary fission - e.g. Amoeba.
(b) Multiple fission – e.g. Plasmodium.
(c) Plasmotomy (multinucleate protozoa cell
divides into two or more multinucleate
daughter cells without mitosis) – e.g. Opalina
(Parasite found in intestine of frog).

REPRODUCTION IN ORGANISMS AIIMS/NEET/ALL MEDICAL ENTRANCES

2. Budding:
- Daughter individual is formed from a small part
or bud, arising from parent body.
- In animals it is of 3 types:
(a) Exogenous budding – e.g. Hydra, Sycon & Yeast.
(b) Endogenous budding (Gemmules) – Spongilla.
(c) Strobilation (formation of similar segments –
segments body called strobila larva, each
segment is called ephyra larva) – Aurelia.

3. Fragmentation:
- Parent body break two or more fragments.
- Each fragment develops into a new organism.

E.g. Spirogyra, sponges, echinoderms, etc.

REPRODUCTION IN ORGANISMS AIIMS/NEET/ALL MEDICAL ENTRANCES*

4. Regeneration:
- Regrowth of injured region.
- It is two types;
(a) Morphallaxis (Whole body is formed from
small fragments):
(b) Epimorphosis (It is replacement of lost body
part (certain damage tissue regenerate called
reparative, while all body parts redevelop
called restorative): e.g. Hydra.

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5. Spore formation:
• Spores are microscopic, single celled.
• Spores can be several types viz.,
- Zoospores (motile & flagellated) – e.g. Chlamydomonas.
- Conidia (non-motile & produce exogenously) – e.g.
Penicillium.
- Chlamydospores (non-motile & thick walled) – e.g.
Rhizopus (Saprophytic fungi).
- Oidia (small, thin walled fragments) – e.g. Agaricus (Genus
of mushrooms).
- Sporangiospore (non-motile endospores) – e.g. Mucor
(microbial fungus).

REPRODUCTION IN ORGANISMS AIIMS/NEET/ALL MEDICAL ENTRANCES*

6. Gemmae:
- Unicellular or multicellular propagules, which develop
in small receptacles called gamma cup.
E.g. Marchantia.

REPRODUCTION IN ORGANISMS AIIMS/NEET/ALL MEDICAL ENTRANCES*

7. Vegetative propagation:
• Formation of new plants from vegetative plant parts is known as
vegetative propagation.
• It is of two types;
(1) Natural methods:
Propagation by roots: Tap root develop adventitious buds
e.g. Dlbergia. Some plants like sweet potato and Dahlia, root
tubers develop adventitious buds.
Propagation by stem: e.g. Tuber – Potato, Bulb – Onion,
Rhizomes – Banana, Ginger, Suckers – Mint,
Chrysanthemum, Runner – Grass, Cyanodon, Stolons –
Jasmine, Strawbery, Offsets – Echhornia, Corms – Colocasia.
Propagation by leaf: Leaf have adventitious buds, then leaf
fall down, adventitious buds grow in new plants. E.g.
Bryophyllum & Begonia.
Propagation by turions and bulbils: e.g. Turions –
Utricularia, & Bulbils – Oxalis & Agave.

REPRODUCTION IN ORGANISMS AIIMS/NEET/ALL MEDICAL ENTRANCES*

(2) Artificial methods:
Grafting: e.g. Mango & Apple.
Micropropagation: By tissue culturing method.
e.g. Carnation & Gladiolus.
Cuttings: e.g.,
Root cuttings – Lemon & Orange.
Stem cuttings – Rose & Sugarcane.
Leaf cuttings – Sansevieria & Saintpaulia

Figure 1.4 Vegetative propagules in

angiosperms: (a) Eyes of potato;
(b) Rhizome of ginger;
(c) Bulbil of Agave; (d) Leaf buds of
Bryophyllum;
(e) Offset of water hyacinth *
(B) Sexual reproduction:
• Involvement of single or two individual.
• Production of male and female gametes
(haploid).
• Gametes fused to form a diploid zygote.
• Zygotes developed into new organism.
• The offspring's are not genetically identical with
their parents (Offspring).
• Also called amphimixis (amphi-both, mixis-
union) or syngenesis (syn-together, genesis-
origin) or amphigony (amphi-both, gony-
marriage).

REPRODUCTION IN ORGANISMS AIIMS/NEET/ALL MEDICAL ENTRANCES*

Features of sexual reproduction:
• Period between birth and sexual maturity is called
juvenile phase. It is known as vegetative phase in plant.
• Bamboo species flower only once in their life time
generally after 50-100 yr.
• Strobilanthus kunthiana (neelakranji) flowers once in 12
years.
• Oestrus cycle: Cyclical changes during reproduction in
non-primate mammal like cows, sheep, rats, deers,
dogs, tiger etc.
• Menstrual cycle: cyclical changes during reproduction in
primate mammals like monkeys, ape, and humans.
• Seasonal breeders: reproductive cycle takes place in
favourable seasons as in wild animals.
• Continuous breeders: reproductively active throughout
their reproductive phase.
REPRODUCTION IN ORGANISMS AIIMS/NEET/ALL MEDICAL ENTRANCES*
Type of sexual reproduction:

Syngamy - Fusion of male and female gamete to form zygote.

Isogamy: It involves the fussion of gamete, which do not

differ morphologically but may be differ physiologically.
It takes place in Chlamydomonas.
Anisogamy: It involves the fusion of gamete, which
differ in size or form. It takes place in Chlamydomonas
and red algae etc.
Oogamy: It involves the fussion of large non-motile
female gamete and a small motile male gamete. It takes
place in some algae, vertebrates including human
beings and higher invertebrates.
Hologamy: It involves the fussion of two organisms. It
occurs in yeast.
REPRODUCTION IN ORGANISMS AIIMS/NEET/ALL MEDICAL ENTRANCES*
Syngamy are of two types on the basis of fussion of gametes;
Endogamy: Fussion of male and female gametes of the
same parents, hence, called uniparental e.g., Taenia.

Exogamy: Fussion of male and female gametes of the

different parents, hence, called biparental e.g., Rabbit.

REPRODUCTION IN ORGANISMS AIIMS/NEET/ALL MEDICAL ENTRANCES*

Conjugation: Organisms of same species (temporary couple)
exchanges their genetic materials. E.g. Paramecium,
Spirogyra.

Special Modes of Reproduction: like Parthenogenesis e.g. in

many invertebrates like rotifers, arthropods and some
vertebrates like Lacera saxicola etc.

EVENTS OF SEXUAL REPRODUCTION

1. Pre-fertilization events:
• Process of gamete formation is gametogenesis.
• Two gametes are similar in appearance are called
homogametes (isogametes).
• Gametes produced are of two morphologically distinct
types called heterogametes.

REPRODUCTION IN ORGANISMS AIIMS/NEET/ALL MEDICAL ENTRANCES*

• Male gamete is called antherozoids or sperm and the
female gamete is called ovum or egg.
Sexuality in organism:
• Plant having both male and female sex organ called
homothallic or monoecious.
• Plants having only one sex organ is called heterothallic
or dioecious.
• In flowering plants, the unisexual male flower is
staminate, i.e. bearing staments, while the female is
pistillate or bearing pistils.
• Animal having one type of reproductive system, called
unisexual.
• Animal having both male and female reproductive
system, called hermaphrodite or bisexual.

REPRODUCTION IN ORGANISMS AIIMS/NEET/ALL MEDICAL ENTRANCES*

Cell division during gamete formation:
• Gametes in all heterogametic species two types
namely male and female.
• Gametes are always haploid irrespective of parent’s
ploidy.
• A haploid parent produces gametes by mitotic
division.
• Diploid parent produces gametes by meiotic division.
• In diploid organisms specialized cells called meiocytes
(gamete mother cell) undergo meiosis to produce
haploid gametes.
• Gametes are form as a result of meiosis, which cam
be three types;

REPRODUCTION IN ORGANISMS AIIMS/NEET/ALL MEDICAL ENTRANCES*

REPRODUCTION IN ORGANISMS AIIMS/NEET/ALL MEDICAL ENTRANCES*
REPRODUCTION IN ORGANISMS AIIMS/NEET/ALL MEDICAL ENTRANCES*
Gamete transfer:
• Male and female gamete must be physically brought
together to facilitate fusion called fertilization.
• In most cases male gametes are motile, female
gametes are non-motile.
• In case of few fungi and algae, both male and female
gametes are motile.
• In most cases water is the medium for gamete
transfer.
• Male gametes are produced in several thousand times
the number of female gametes produced to
compensate the loss during transfer.

REPRODUCTION IN ORGANISMS AIIMS/NEET/ALL MEDICAL ENTRANCES*

2. Fertilization:
• Fusion of male and female gamete is called fertilization
or syngamy.
• The female gamete undergoes development to form new
organism without fertilization. This phenomenon is called
parthenogenesis.
• Gametic fusion takes place outside the body i.e. water is
called external fertilization.
• Their must be synchrony of gamete release, large
number of gametes released to enhance the chance of
fertilization.
• Enable the individual to produce large number of
offsprings.
• A major disadvantage is that the offsprings are
extremely vulnerable to predators.
• Fertilization takes place inside the body is called internal
fertilization.
REPRODUCTION IN ORGANISMS AIIMS/NEET/ALL MEDICAL ENTRANCES
3. Zygote:
• Formation of zygote after fertilization is universal in all
sexually reproducing organisms.
• Zygote is formed usually in water in case of external
fertilization.
• Zygote is formed inside the body of the organism in
internal fertilization.
• Zygote of fungi and algae develops a thick wall that is
resistant to dessication and damage.
• Organism with haplontic life cycle, zygote undergoes
meiosis to produce haploid spores.
Embryogenesis:

• Development of zygote into an embryo is called

embryogenesis.
• Zygote undergoes cell division (mitosis) and cell
differentiation.
• Oviparous animal which lays eggs and development
takes place inside egg.
• Viviparous animal gives birth to the young. The
development takes place inside the body of the female.
In plants:
o Zygote developed into embryo.
o Ovule developed into seed
o Integument of the ovule developed into seed coat.
o Ovary developed into fruit.
o Ovary wall developed into pericarp.
PANCHANAN MAHESHWARI (1904-1966) :

Born in November 1904 in Jaipur (Rajasthan).

He worked on embryological aspects and popularized the use
of embryological characters in taxonomy.
He also emphasized the need for initiation of work on artificial
culture of immature embryos.
• Coconut Cucurbits – Monoecious.
• Ornithorhynchus – Egg laying mammals.
• Whale – Viviparous mammal. Mature ovary – Fruits. •
Monocarpic plant – Die after flowering once.
 EXERCISES
10. Explain why meiosis and gametogenesis are
always interlinked?
12. Define external fertilisation. Mention its
disadvantages.
14. Differentiate between gametogenesis from
embryogenesis.
Q . Write a short note on reproduction, and its type?
Q . Explain the events of sexual reproduction?