3.1 Sexual and Asexual reproduction

1. Organisms that show sexual production show genders, male and female
2. This doesn't occur in asexual reproduction
3. Organisms that show sexual reproduction produce cells gametes, in the male this is a sperm cell and in the female it is the egg. In plants the sperm cell is known as the pollen, and the egg is the ovule.
4. Asexual populations produce no gametes
5. The type of cell divisions that produce gametes is called meiosis. One of its effects is to half the total adult number of chromosomes in the gamete cell
6. In humans the total number of chromosomes in an adult is 46 per cell, however there are only 23 per gamete cell. The process in which is halves is called meiosis
7. In asexual reproduction there is no meiosis, there is mitosis and binary fission in procariotic bacterial cells. The number of chromosomes is maintained constantly. A cell with 20 chromosomes would divide into 2 cells, both with 20 chromosomes. These 2 cells are identical.
8. In sexually reproducing populations there is the process of fertilisation. This is where the sperm cell of a male and the egg cell of the female fuse together.
9. In asexually reproducing organisms there is no fertilisation.
10. In sexually reproducing organisms, there are variations, and these variations are broad. There are many differences. In asexually reproducing organisms, there is small variation and very little differences but in large, they are identical.

Question: When the amount of chromosomes is halved, are they randomly picked or are there specific types of chromosomes that are needed?

This is an example of a sexually reproducing organism

Mushrooms are an example of asexually reproducing organisms