UPSC Biology Reproduction In Organisms Reproduction in Organism

Reproduction in Organism

1.           Reproduction in Plants

• The flowers perform the function of reproduction in plants. Flowers are the reproductive parts of a plant. A flower may have either the male part or the female part or both male and female parts.
• There are several ways by which plants produce their offspring. These are categorized into two types-asexual and sexual reproduction. In asexual reproduction plants can give rise to new plants without seeds, whereas in sexual reproduction, new plants are obtained from seeds.
• In asexual reproduction new plants are obtained without production of seeds or spores.
• Vegetative propagation is a type of asexual reproduction in which new plants are produced from roots, stems, leaves and buds. Since reproduction is through the vegetative parts of the plant, it is known as vegetative propagation.
• Yeast is a single-celled organism.
• Flowers are the reproductive parts of a plant. The stamens are the male reproductive part and the pistil is the female reproductive part.
• The flowers which contain either only the pistil or only the stamens are called unisexual flowers. The flowers which contain both stamens and pistil are called bisexual flowers.
• Corn, papaya and cucumber produce unisexual flowers, whereas mustard, rose and petunia have bisexual flowers.
• Both the male and the female unisexual flowers may be present in the same plant or in different plants.
• Anther contains pollen grains which produce male gametes. A pistil consists of stigma, style and ovary. The ovary contains one or more ovules. The female gamete or the egg is formed in an ovule.
• In sexual reproduction a male and a female gamete fuse to form a zygote.
• Generally pollen grains have a tough protective coat which prevents them from drying up. Since pollen grains are light, they can be carried by wind or water. Insects visit flowers and carry away pollen on their bodies. Some of the pollen lands on the stigma of a flower of the same kind.
• The transfer of pollen from the anther to the stigma of a flower is called pollination. If the pollen lands on the stigma of the same flower it is called self-pollination. When the pollen of a flower lands on the stigma of another flower of the same plant, or that of a different plant of the same kind, it is called cross-pollination.
• The cell which results after fusion of the gametes is called a zygote. The process of fusion of male and female gametes (to form a zygote) is called fertilisation. The zygote develops into an embryo.
• After fertilisation, the ovary grows into a fruit and other parts of the flower fall off. The fruit is the ripened ovary. The seeds develop from the ovules. The seed contains an embryo enclosed in a protective seed coat.
• What will happen if all seeds of a plant were to fall at the same place and grow there. There would be severe competition for sunlight, water, minerals and space. As a result the seeds would not grow into healthy plants. Plants benefit by seed dispersal. It prevents competition between the plant and its own seedlings for sunlight, water and minerals. It also enables the plants to invade new habitats for wider distribution.
• Seeds and fruits of plants are carried away by wind, water and animals. Winged seeds such as those of drumstick and maple, light seeds of grasses or hairy seeds of aak (Madar) and hairy fruit of sunflower get blown off with the wind to far away places.
• Some seeds are dispersed by water. These fruits or seeds usually develop floating ability in the form of spongy or fibrous outer coat as in coconut.
• Some seeds are dispersed by animals, especially spiny seeds with hooks which get attached to the bodies of animals and are carried to distant places. Examples are Xamhium and Urena.
• Some seeds are dispersed when the fruits burst with sudden jerks. The seeds are scattered far from the parent plant. This happens in the case of castor and balsam.
• There are many plants in which parts like the root, stem and leaves develop into new plants under appropriate conditions. Unlike in most animals, plants can indeed use such a mode for reproduction. This property of vegetative propagation is used in methods such as layering or grafting to grow many plants like sugarcane, roses, or grapes for agricultural purposes.
• Plants raised by vegetative propagation can bear flowers and fruits earlier than those produced from seeds. Such methods also make possible the propagation of plants such as banana, orange, rose and jasmine that have lost the capacity to produce seeds.
• Another advantage of vegetative propagation is that all plants produced are genetically similar enough to the parent plant to have all its characteristics.
• A bamboo species flower only once in their life time, generally after 50-100 years, produce large number of fruits and die.
• Another plant, Strobilanthus kunthiana (neelakuranji), flowers once in 12 years. This plant flowered during September-October, 2006. Its mass flowering transformed large tracks of hilly areas in Kerala, Kamataka and Tamil Nadu into blue stretches and attracted a large number of tourists.
• In most plants, by the time the fruit develops from the ovary, other floral parts degenerate and fall off. However, in a few species such as apple, strawberry, cashew, etc., the thalamus also contributes to fruit formation. Such fruits are called false fruits. Most fruits however develop only from the ovary and are called true fruits.
• Although in most of the species, fruits are the results of fertilisation, there are a few species in which fruits develop without fertilisation. Such fruits are called parthenocarpic fruits. Banana is one such example. Parthenocarpy can be induced through the application of growth hormones and such fruits are seedless.

2.           Reproduction in Animals

• The chromosomes in the nucleus of a cell contain information for inheritance of features from parents to next generation in the form of DNA (Deoxyribo Nucleic Acid) molecules.
• The DNA in the cell nucleus is the information source for making proteins. If the information is changed, different proteins will be made. Different proteins will eventually lead to altered body designs. Therefore, a basic event in reproduction is the creation of a DNA copy.
• Therefore, it is only to be expected that the process of copying the DNA will have some variations each time. As a result, the DNA copies generated will be similar, but may not be identical to the original. This inbuilt tendency for variation during reproduction is the basis for evolution, as we will discuss in the next chapter.
• However, if some variations were to be present in a few individuals in these populations, there would be some chance for them to survive. Thus, if there were a population of bacteria living in temperate waters, and if the water temperature were to be increased by global warming, most of these bacteria would die, but the few variants resistant to heat would survive and grow further. Variation is thus useful for the survival of species over time.
• For unicellular organisms, cell division, or fission, leads to the creation of new individuals. Many different patterns of fission have been observed. Many bacteria and protozoa simply split into two equal halves during cell division. In organisms such as Amoeba, the splitting of the two cells during division can take place in any plane.
• However, some unicellular organisms show somewhat more organisation of their bodies, such as is seen in Leishmania (which cause kala-azar), which have a whip-like structure at one end of the cell. In such organisms, binary fission occurs in a definite orientation in relation to these structures. Other single-celled organisms, such as the malarial parasite, Plasmodium, divide into many daughter cells simultaneously by multiple fission.
• Spirogyra simply breaks up into smaller pieces upon maturation. These piece or fragments grow into new individuals.
• Hydra and Planaria can be cut into any number of pieces and each piece grows into a complete organism. This is known as regeneration.
• Organisms such as Hydra use regenerative cells for reproduction in the process of budding. In Hydra, a bud develops as an outgrowth due to repeated cell division at one specific site. These buds develop into tiny individuals and when fully mature, detach from the parent body and become new independent individuals.
• There are many plants in which parts like the root, stem and leaves develop into new plants under appropriate conditions. Unlike in most animals, plants can indeed use such a mode for reproduction. This property of vegetative propagation is used in methods such as layering or grafting to grow many plants like sugarcane, roses, or grapes for agricultural purposes.
• Plants raised by vegetative propagation can bear flowers and fruits earlier than those produced from seeds. Such methods also make possible the propagation of plants such as banana, orange, rose and jasmine that have lost the capacity to produce seeds.
• Another advantage of vegetative propagation is that all plants produced are genetically similar enough to the parent plant to have all its characteristics.

3.           Sexual Reproduction

• In a population, variations are useful for ensuring the survival of the species. It would therefore make sense if organisms came up with reproductive modes that allowed more and more variation to be generated.
• Each new variation is made in a DNA copy that already has variations accumulated from previous generations. Thus, two different individuals in a population would have quite different patterns of accumulated variations. Since all of these variations are in living individuals, it is assured that they do not have any really bad effects. Combining variations from two or more individuals would thus create new combinations of variants. Each combination would be novel, since it would involve two different individuals.
• The formation of germ-cells or sperms takes place in the testes. These are located outside the abdominal cavity in scrotum because sperm formation requires a lower temperature than the normal body temperature.
• In addition to regulating the formation of sperms, testosterone brings about changes in appearance seen in boys at the time of puberty.
• The female germ-cells or eggs are made in the ovaries. They are also responsible for the production of some hormones.
• When a girl is born, the ovaries already contain thousands of immature eggs. On reaching puberty, some of these start maturing.
• The embryo gets nutrition from the mother's blood with the help of a special tissue called placenta. This is a disc which is embedded in the uterine wall. It contains villi on the embryo's side of the tissue. On the mother's side are blood spaces, which surround the villi. This provides a large surface area for glucose and oxygen to pass from the mother to the embryo.
• The developing embryo will also generate waste substances which can be removed by transferring them into the mother's blood through the placenta. The development of the child inside the mother's body takes approximately nine months. The child is born as a result of rhythmic contractions of the muscles in the uterus.
• If the egg is not fertilised, it lives for about one day. Since the ovary releases one egg every month, the uterus also prepares itself every month to receive a fertilised egg. Thus its lining becomes thick and spongy. This would be required for nourishing the embryo if fertilisation had taken place. Now, however, this lining is not needed any longer. So, the lining slowly breaks and comes out through the vagina as blood and mucous. This cycle takes place roughly every month and is known as menstruation. It usually lasts for about two to eight days.
• The male reproductive organs include a pair of testes (singular, testis), two sperm ducts and a penis. The testes produce the male gametes called sperms. Millions of sperms are produced by the testes.
• Though sperms are very small in size, each has a head, a middle piece and a tail.
• The female reproductive organs are a pair of ovaries, oviducts (fallopian tubes) and the uterus. Ovary produces female gametes called ova (eggs). Like the sperm, an egg is also a single cell.
• Cloning is the production of an exact copy of a cell, any other living part, or a complete organism.
• Cloning of an animal was successfully performed for the first time by Ian Wilmut and his colleagues at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland. They cloned successfully a sheep named Dolly.
• Dolly was born on 5th July, 1996 and was the first mammal to be cloned.
• During the process of cloning Dolly, a cell was collected from the mammary gland of a female Finn Dorsett sheep. Simultaneously, an egg was obtained from a Scottish blackface ewe. The nucleus was removed from the egg. Then, the nucleus of the mammary gland cell from the Finn Dorsett sheep was inserted into the egg of the Scottish blackface ewe whose nucleus had been removed. The egg thus produced was implanted into the Scottish blackface ewe. Development of this egg followed normally and finally Dolly was born.
• Though Dolly was given birth by the Scottish blackface ewe, it was found to be absolutely identical to the Finn Dorsett sheep from which the nucleus was taken. Since the nucleus from the egg of the Scottish blackface ewe was removed, Dolly did not show any character of the Scottish blackface ewe.
• Dolly was a healthy clone of the Finn Dorsett sheep and produced several offspring of her own through normal sexual means. Unfortunately, Dolly died on 14th February, 2003 due to a certain lung disease.