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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.
Human sexual reproduction, to produce offspring, begins with fertilization. Successful reproduction typically involves sexual intercourse between a healthy, sexually mature and fertile male and female. [1] During sexual intercourse, sperm cells are ejaculated into the vagina through the penis, resulting in fertilization of an ovum to form a ...
Reproduction (or procreation or breeding) is the biological process by which new individual organisms – "offspring" – are produced from their "parent" or parents. There are two forms of reproduction: asexual and sexual. In asexual reproduction, an organism can reproduce without the involvement of another organism.
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]
The reproductive system of an organism, also known as the genital system, is the biological system made up of all the anatomical organs involved in sexual reproduction.Many non-living substances such as fluids, hormones, and pheromones are also important accessories to the reproductive system. [1]
Fertilization was not understood in antiquity. Hippocrates believed that the embryo was the product of male semen and a female factor. Aristotle held that only male semen gave rise to an embryo, while the female only provided a place for the embryo to develop, [5] a concept he acquired from the preformationist Pythagoras.
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).
During sexual reproduction, a diploid organism produces specialized haploid sex cells called gametes via meiosis, [12] each of which has a single set of chromosomes. Meiosis involves a stage of genetic recombination via chromosomal crossover , in which regions of DNA are exchanged between matched pairs of chromosomes, to form new chromosomes ...