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Many eukaryotic organisms including plants, animals, and fungi can also reproduce asexually. [1] In vertebrates , the most common form of asexual reproduction is parthenogenesis , which is typically used as an alternative to sexual reproduction in times when reproductive opportunities are limited.
[1] [2] [3] Sexual reproduction is widespread in eukaryotes, though a few eukaryotic species have secondarily lost the ability to reproduce sexually, such as Bdelloidea, and some plants and animals routinely reproduce asexually (by apomixis and parthenogenesis) without entirely having lost sex.
Eukaryotes may be either unicellular or multicellular. In comparison, prokaryotes are typically unicellular. Unicellular eukaryotes are sometimes called protists. Eukaryotes can reproduce both asexually through mitosis and sexually through meiosis and gamete fusion (fertilization).
This is because in asexual reproduction a successful genotype can spread quickly without being modified by sex or wasting resources on male offspring who will not give birth. Some species can produce both sexually and through parthenogenesis, and offspring in the same clutch of a species of tropical lizard can be a mix of sexually produced ...
This diagram illustrates how sexual reproduction (top) might create new genotypes faster than asexual reproduction (bottom). The advantageous alleles A and B occur randomly. In sexual reproduction, the two alleles are combined rapidly. But in asexual reproduction, the two alleles must independently arise through clonal interference.
However, these eukaryotes probably are not primitively asexual, but have lost their sexual reproduction, or it just was not observed yet. [27] [28] Many eukaryotes (including animals and plants) exhibit asexual reproduction, which may be facultative or obligate in the life cycle, with sexual reproduction occurring more or less frequently. [29]
Muller's ratchet relies on genetic drift, and turns faster in smaller populations because in such populations deleterious mutations have a better chance of fixation. Therefore, it sets the limits to the maximum size of asexual genomes and to the long-term evolutionary continuity of asexual lineages. [4]
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.