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Asexual reproduction in plants occurs in two fundamental forms, vegetative reproduction and agamospermy. [1] Vegetative reproduction involves a vegetative piece of the original plant producing new individuals by budding, tillering, etc. and is distinguished from apomixis, which is a replacement of sexual reproduction, and in some cases involves ...
Plant reproductive morphology is the study of the physical form and structure (the morphology) of those parts of plants directly or indirectly concerned with sexual reproduction. Among all living organisms, flowers , which are the reproductive structures of angiosperms , are the most varied physically and show a correspondingly great diversity ...
Anisogamy is the form of sexual reproduction that involves the union or fusion of two gametes which differ in size and/or form. [12] The smaller gamete is considered to be male (a sperm cell), whereas the larger gamete is regarded as female (typically an egg cell, if non-motile).
Sexual reproduction is the most common life cycle in multicellular eukaryotes, such as animals, fungi and plants. [6] [7] Sexual reproduction also occurs in some unicellular eukaryotes. [2] [8] Sexual reproduction does not occur in prokaryotes, unicellular organisms without cell nuclei, such as bacteria and archaea.
Sexual systems play a key role in genetic variation and reproductive success, and may also have led to the origin or extinction of certain species. [4] In flowering plants and animals, sexual reproduction involves meiosis, an adaptive process for repairing damage in the germline DNA transmitted to progeny. [5]
Another theory is that sexual reproduction originated from selfish parasitic genetic elements that exchange genetic material (that is: copies of their own genome) for their transmission and propagation. In some organisms, sexual reproduction has been shown to enhance the spread of parasitic genetic elements (e.g. yeast, filamentous fungi). [79]
The gametophyte is the sexual phase in the life cycle of plants and algae. It develops sex organs that produce gametes , haploid sex cells that participate in fertilization to form a diploid zygote which has a double set of chromosomes.
The primary mating systems in plants are outcrossing (cross-fertilisation), autogamy (self-fertilisation) and apomixis (asexual reproduction without fertilization, but only when arising by modification of sexual function). Mixed mating systems, in which plants use two or even all three mating systems, are not uncommon. [1]