reproduction

/ree'preuh duk"sheuhn/, n.

1. the act or process of reproducing.

2. the state of being reproduced.

3. something made by reproducing an original; copy; duplicate: a photographic reproduction; a reproduction of a Roman vase.

4. Biol. the natural process among organisms by which new individuals are generated and the species perpetuated.

[1650-60; RE- + PRODUCTION]

Syn. 3. replica, facsimile. 4. generation, propagation.

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Process by which organisms replicate themselves, assuring continuation of their species.

The two basic forms are asexual and sexual. Asexual reproduction (e.g., fission, spore formation, regeneration, and vegetative reproduction) produces an offspring genetically identical to its single parent. Sexual reproduction produces a new individual through the union of special sex cells (gametes), usually from different parents. Gametes result from meiosis. Gamete union results in a zygote, the first cell of a new organism. Sexual reproduction ensures that each offspring is genetically unique (except in cases of multiple offspring derived from divisions of one zygote). Most animals, including all vertebrates, reproduce sexually.

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▪ biology

Introduction

      process by which organisms replicate themselves.

      In a general sense reproduction is one of the most important concepts in biology: it means making a copy, a likeness, and thereby providing for the continued existence of species. Although reproduction is often considered solely in terms of the production of offspring in animals and plants, the more general meaning has far greater significance to living organisms. To appreciate this fact, the origin of life and the evolution of organisms must be considered. One of the first characteristics of life that emerged in primeval times must have been the ability of some primitive chemical system to make copies of itself.

      At its lowest level, therefore, reproduction is chemical replication. As evolution progressed, cells of successively higher levels of complexity must have arisen, and it was absolutely essential that they had the ability to make likenesses of themselves. In unicellular organisms, the ability of one cell to reproduce itself means the reproduction of a new individual; in multicellular organisms, however, it means growth and regeneration. Multicellular organisms also reproduce in the strict sense of the term—that is, they make copies of themselves in the form of offspring—but they do so in a variety of ways, many involving complex organs and elaborate hormonal mechanisms.

Levels of reproduction

Molecular replication

      The characteristics that an organism inherits (heredity) are largely stored in cells as genetic information in very long molecules of deoxyribonucleic acid ( DNA). In 1953 it was established that DNA molecules consist of two complementary strands, each of which can make copies of the other. The strands are like two sides of a ladder that has been twisted along its length in the shape of a double helix (spring). The rungs, which join the two sides of the ladder, are made up of two terminal bases. There are four bases in DNA (nucleic acid): thymine, cytosine, adenine, and guanine. In the middle of each rung a base from one strand of DNA is linked by a hydrogen bond to a base of the other strand. But they can pair only in certain ways: adenine always pairs with thymine, and guanine with cytosine. This is why one strand of DNA is considered complementary to the other.

      The double helices duplicate themselves by separating at one place between the two strands and becoming progressively unattached. As one strand separates from the other, each acquires new complementary bases until eventually each strand becomes a new double helix with a new complementary strand to replace the original one. Because adenine always falls in place opposite thymine and guanine opposite cytosine, the process is called a template replication—one strand serves as the mold for the other. It should be added that the steps involving the duplication of DNA do not occur spontaneously; they require catalysts in the form of enzymes that promote the replication process.

Molecular reproduction

      The sequence of bases in a DNA molecule serves as a code by which genetic (genetic code) information is stored. Using this code, the DNA synthesizes one strand of ribonucleic acid ( RNA), a substance that is so similar structurally to DNA that it is also formed by template replication of DNA. RNA serves as a messenger for carrying the genetic code to those places in the cell where proteins are manufactured. The way in which the messenger RNA is translated into specific proteins is a remarkable and complex process. (For more detailed information concerning DNA, RNA, and the genetic code, see the articles nucleic acid and heredity: Chromosomes and genes (heredity)). The ability to synthesize enzymes (enzyme) and other proteins (protein) enables the organism to make any substance that existed in a previous generation. Proteins are reproduced directly; however, such other substances as carbohydrates, fats, and other organic molecules found in cells are produced by a series of enzyme-controlled chemical reactions, each enzyme being derived originally from DNA through messenger RNA. It is because all of the organic constituents made by organisms are derived ultimately from DNA that molecules in organisms are reproduced exactly by each successive generation.

cell reproduction

      The chemical constituents of cytoplasm (that part of the cell outside the nucleus) are not resynthesized from DNA every time a cell divides. This is because each of the two daughter cells formed during cell division usually inherits about half of the cellular material from the mother cell (see cell: Cell division and growth (cell)), and is important because the presence of essential enzymes enables DNA to replicate even before it has made the enzymes necessary to do so.

      Cells of higher organisms contain complex structures, and each time a cell divides the structures must be duplicated. The method of duplication varies for each structure, and in some cases the mechanism is still uncertain. One striking and important phenomenon is the formation of a new membrane. Cell membranes, although they are very thin and appear to have a simple form and structure, contain many enzymes and are sites of great metabolic activity. This applies not only to the membrane that surrounds the cell but to all the membranes within the cell. New membranes, which seem to form rapidly, are indistinguishable from old ones.

      Thus, the formation of a new cell involves the further synthesis of many constituents that were present in the parent cell. This means that all of the information and materials necessary for a cell to reproduce itself must be supplied by the cellular constituents and the DNA inherited from the parent cell.

binary fission

      Of the various kinds of cell division, the most common mode is binary fission, the division of a cell into two separate and similar parts. In bacteria (prokaryotes (prokaryote)) the chromosome (the body that contains the DNA and associated proteins) replicates and then divides in two, after which a cell wall forms across the elongated parent cell. In higher organisms (eukaryotes (eukaryote)) there is first an elaborate duplication and then a separation of the chromosomes ( mitosis), after which the cytoplasm divides in two. In the hard-walled cells of higher plants (reproductive system, plant), a median plate forms and divides the mother cell into two compartments; in animal cells, which do not have a hard wall, a delicate membrane pinches the cell in two, much like the separation of two liquid drops. budding yeast cells provide an interesting exception. In these fungi the cell wall forms a bubble that becomes engorged with cytoplasm until it is ultimately the size of the original cell. The nucleus then divides, one of the daughter nuclei passes into the bud, and ultimately the two cells separate.

      In some instances of binary fission, there may be an unequal cytoplasmic division with an equal division of the chromosomes. This occurs, in fact, in a large number of higher organisms during meiosis—the process by which sex cells (gametes (gamete)) are formed: originally each chromosome of the cell is in a pair (diploid); during meiosis these diploid pairs of chromosomes are separated so that each sex cell has only one of each pair of chromosomes (haploid). During the two successive meiotic divisions involved in the production of eggs (egg), a primordial diploid egg cell is converted into a haploid egg and three small haploid polar bodies (minute cells (ovum)). In this instance the egg receives far more cytoplasm than the polar bodies.

Multiple fission

      Some algae, some protozoans (protozoan), and the true slime molds ( Myxomycetes) regularly divide by multiple fission. In such cases the nucleus undergoes several mitotic divisions, producing a number of nuclei. After the nuclear divisions are complete, the cytoplasm separates, and each nucleus becomes encased in its own membrane to form an individual cell. In the Myxomycetes, the fusion of two haploid gametes or the fusion of two or more diploid zygotes (the structures that result from the union of two sex cells) results in the formation of a plasmodium—a motile, multinucleate mass of cytoplasm. The nuclei are in a syncytium, that is, there are no cell boundaries, and the nuclei flow freely in the motile plasmodium. As it feeds, the plasmodium enlarges, and the nuclei divide synchronously about once every 24 hours. The plasmodium may become very large, with millions of nuclei, but, ultimately, when conditions are right, it forms a series of small bumps, each of which becomes a small, fruiting body (a structure that bears the spores). During this process the nuclei undergo meiosis, and the final haploid nuclei are then isolated into uninucleate spores (reproductive bodies).

      Many algae (e.g., the Siphonales and related groups) are multinucleate. In most instances the nuclei are in one common cytoplasm within a large and elaborate organism surrounded by a hard cell wall. As the wall becomes extended, the nuclei, which wander freely in the central cavity, undergo repeated mitoses. Again, either during the formation of zoospores (asexual reproductive cells) or after meiosis during gamete formation, a massive progressive division occurs. The most unusual of such organisms is the marine alga Acetabularia; many nuclei stay clumped together in one compound nucleus in the rootlike base, which often is as much as two inches (five centimetres) away from the tip of the plant. The compound nucleus breaks up just before gamete formation, and the minute individual nuclei undergo meiosis and wander to the elaborate tip structures, where they are released as uninucleate gametes.

      Syncytial organisms raise the question of whether or not cells, in the strict sense, are necessary for the development of large organisms. Syncytia are also found in animals—e.g., in the early stages of development of fishes and insects—and in the voluntary muscles of man. The proposal of the 19th-century botanist Julius von Sachs (Sachs, (Ferdinand Gustav) Julius von) is generally considered a satisfactory answer to this question; he suggested that the important matter was the existence not of a cell membrane but of a certain amount of cytoplasm surrounding a nucleus and acting as a unit of metabolism, which he called an energid. Cell reproduction, therefore, might be considered a special case of energid reproduction.

Reproduction of organisms

      In single-celled organisms (e.g., bacteria, protozoans, many algae, and some fungi), organismic and cell reproduction are synonymous, for the cell is the whole organism. Details of the process differ greatly from one form to the next and, if the higher ciliate protozoans are included, can be extraordinarily complex. It is possible for reproduction to be asexual, by simple division, or sexual. In sexual unicellular organisms the gametes can be produced by division (often multiple fission, as in numerous algae) or, as in yeasts, by the organism turning itself into a gamete and fusing its nucleus with that of a neighbour of the opposite sex, a process that is called conjugation. In ciliate protozoans (e.g., Paramecium), the conjugation process involves the exchange of haploid nuclei; each partner acquires a new nuclear apparatus, half of which is genetically derived from its mate. The parent cells separate and subsequently reproduce by binary fission. Sexuality (sex) is present even in primitive bacteria, in which parts of the chromosome of one cell can be transferred to another during mating.

      Multicellular organisms also reproduce asexually and sexually; asexual, or vegetative, reproduction can take a great variety of forms. Many multicellular lower plants give off asexual spores, either aerial or motile and aquatic (zoospores), which may be uninucleate or multinucleate. In some cases the reproductive body is multicellular, as in the soredia of lichens and the gemmae of liverworts. Frequently, whole fragments of the vegetative part of the organism can bud off and begin a new individual, a phenomenon that is found in most plant groups. In many cases a spreading rhizoid (rootlike filament) or, in higher plants, a rhizome (underground stem) gives off new sprouts. Sometimes other parts of the plant have the capacity to form new individuals; for instance, buds of potentially new plants may form in the leaves; even some shoots that bend over and touch the ground can give rise to new plants at the point of contact.

      Among animals, many invertebrates are equally well endowed with means of asexual reproduction. Numerous species of sponges (sponge) produce gemmules, masses of cells enclosed in resistant cases, that can become new sponges. There are many examples of budding among coelenterates, the best known of which occurs in freshwater Hydra. In some species of flatworms (flatworm), the individual worm can duplicate by pinching in two, each half then regenerating the missing half; this is a large task for the posterior portion, which lacks most of the major organs—brain, eyes, and pharynx. The highest animals that exhibit vegetative reproduction are the colonial tunicates (tunicate) (e.g., sea squirts), which, much like plants, send out runners in the form of stolons, small parts of which form buds that develop into new individuals. Vertebrates (vertebrate) have lost the ability to reproduce vegetatively; their only form of organismic reproduction is sexual.

      In the sexual reproduction of all organisms except bacteria, there is one common feature: haploid, uninucleate gametes are produced that join in fertilization to form a diploid, uninucleate zygote. At some later stage in the life history of the organism, the chromosome number is again reduced by meiosis to form the next generation of gametes. The gametes may be equal in size (isogamy), or one may be slightly larger than the other (anisogamy); the majority of forms have a large egg and a minute sperm (oogamy). The sperm are usually motile and the egg passive, except in higher plants, in which the sperm nuclei are carried in pollen grains that attach to the stigma (a female structure) of the flower and send out germ tubes that grow down to the egg nucleus in the ovary. Some organisms, such as most flowering plants, earthworms, and tunicates, are bisexual (hermaphroditic (hermaphroditism), or monoecious)—i.e., both the male and female gametes are produced by the same individual. All other organisms, including some plants (e.g., holly and the ginkgo tree) and all vertebrates, are unisexual (dioecious): the male and female gametes are produced by separate individuals.

      Some sexual organisms partially revert to the asexual mode by a periodic degeneration of the sexual process. For instance, in aphids and in many higher plants the egg nucleus can develop into a new individual without fertilization, a kind of asexual reproduction that is called parthenogenesis.

Life-cycle (life cycle) reproduction

      Although organisms are often thought of only as adults, and reproduction is considered to be the formation of a new adult resembling the adult of the previous generation, a living organism, in reality, is an organism for its entire life cycle, from fertilized egg to adult, not for just one short part of that cycle. Reproduction, in these terms, is not just a stage in the life history of an organism but the organism's entire history. It has been pointed out that only the DNA of a cell is capable of replicating itself, and even that replication process requires specific enzymes that were themselves formed from DNA. Thus, the reproduction of all living forms must be considered in relation to time; what is reproduced is a series of copies that, like the sequence of individual frames of a motion picture, change through time in an exact and orderly fashion.

      A few examples serve to illustrate the great variety of life cycles in living organisms. They also illustrate how different parts of the life cycle can change, and the fact that these changes are not confined solely to adult structures. One variation is that of minimum size—that is to say, the differences in the sizes of gametes (mature sex cells) and asexual bodies. An even greater variation in life cycles, however, involves maximum size; there is an enormous difference between a single-celled organism that divides by binary fission and a giant sequoia. Size is correlated with time. A bacterium requires about 30 minutes to complete its life history and divide in two (generation time); a giant Sequoia bears its first cones and fertile seeds after 60 years. Not only is the life cycle of the sequoia 10,000,000 times longer than that of the bacterium, but the large difference in size also means that the tree must be elaborate and complex. It contains different tissue types that must be carefully duplicated from generation to generation.

Life cycles of plants (reproductive system, plant)

      Most life histories, except perhaps for the simplest and smallest organisms, consist of different epochs. A large tree has a period of seed (seed and fruit) formation that involves many cell divisions after fertilization and the laying down of a small embryo in a hard resistant shell, or seed coat. There then follows a period of dormancy, sometimes prolonged, after which the seed germinates, and the adult form slowly emerges as the shoots and roots grow at the tips and the stem thickens. In some trees the leaves of the juvenile plant have a shape that is quite different from that of the taller, more mature individuals. Thus, even the growth phase may be subdivided into epochs, the final one being the flowering or gametebearing period. Some of the parasitic fungi have much more complex life histories. The wheat rust parasite, for example, has alternate hosts. While living on wheat, it produces two kinds of spores; it produces a third kind of spore when it invades its other host, the barberry, on which it winters and undergoes the sexual part of its life cycle.

      In plants, variations in the epochs of the life cycle are often centred around the times of fertilization and meiosis. After fertilization the organism has the diploid number of chromosomes (diplophase); after meiosis it is haploid (haplophase). The two events vary in time with respect to each other. In some simple algae (e.g., Chlamydomonas), for example, most of the cycle is haploid; meiosis occurs immediately after fertilization. Yet in other algae, such as the sea lettuce (Ulva), two equal haploid and diploid cycles alternate. The outward morphological structures of mature Ulva are indistinguishable; the two cycles can be differentiated only by the size of the cell or nucleus, those of the haploid stage being half the size of those of the diploid stage.

      In many of the higher algae, there is a progressive diminution of the haplophase and an increase in the importance of the diplophase, a trend that is especially noticeable in the evolution of the vascular plants (e.g., ferns, conifers, and flowering plants). In mosses (moss), the haplophase, or gametophyte, is the main part of the green plant; the diplophase, or sporophyte, usually is a sporebearing spike that grows from the top of the plant. In ferns (fern), the haplophase is reduced to a small, inconspicuous structure (prothallus) that grows in the damp soil; the large spore-bearing fern itself is entirely diploid. Finally, in higher plants the haploid tissue is confined to the ovary of the large diploid organism, a condition that is also prevalent in most animals.

Life cycles of animals

      Invertebrate animals have a rich variety of life cycles, especially among those forms that undergo metamorphosis, a radical physical change. Butterflies (butterfly), for instance, have a caterpillar stage ( larva), a dormant chrysalis stage ( pupa), and an adult stage (imago). One remarkable aspect of this development is that, during the transition from caterpillar to adult, most of the caterpillar tissue disintegrates and is used as food, thereby providing energy for the next stage of development, which begins when certain small structures (imaginal disks) in the larva start growing into the adult form. Thus, the butterfly undergoes essentially two periods of growth and development (larva and pupa–adult) and two periods of small size (fertilized egg and imaginal disks). A somewhat similar phenomenon is found in sea urchins (sea urchin); the larva, which is called a pluteus, has a small, wartlike bud that grows into the adult while the pluteus tissue disintegrates. In both examples it is as if the organism has two life histories, one built on the ruins of another.

      Another life-cycle pattern found among certain invertebrates illustrates the principle that major differences between organisms are not always found in the physical appearance of the adult but in differences of the whole life history. In the coelenterate (cnidarian) Obelia, for example, the egg develops into a colonial hydroid consisting of a series of branching Hydra-like organisms called polyps (polyp). Certain of these polyps become specialized (reproductive polyps) and bud off from the colony as free-swimming jellyfish (medusae (medusa)) that bear eggs and sperm. As with caterpillars and sea urchins, two distinct phases occur in the life cycle of Obelia: the sessile (anchored), branched polyps and the motile medusae. In some related coelenterates the medusa form has been totally lost, leaving only the polyp stage to bear eggs and sperm directly. In still other coelenterates the polyp stage has been lost, and the medusae produce other medusae directly, without the sessile stage. There are, furthermore, intermediate forms between the extremes.

natural selection and reproduction

      The significance of biological reproduction can be explained entirely by natural selection (see evolution: The concept of natural selection (evolution)). In formulating his theory of natural selection, Charles Darwin (Darwin, Charles) realized that, in order for evolution to occur, not only must living organisms be able to reproduce themselves but the copies must not all be identical; that is, they must show some variation (genotype). In this way the more successful variants would make a greater contribution to subsequent generations in the number of offspring. For such selection to act continuously in successive generations, Darwin also recognized that the variations had to be inherited, although he failed to fathom the mechanism of heredity. Moreover, the amount of variation is particularly important. According to what has been called the principle of compromise, which itself has been shaped by natural selection, there must not be too little or too much variation: too little produces no change; too much scrambles the benefit of any particular combination of inherited traits.

      Of the numerous mechanisms for controlling variation, all of which involve a combination of checks and balances that work together, the most successful is that found in the large majority of all plants and animals—i.e., sexual reproduction. During the evolution of reproduction and variation, which are the two basic properties of organisms that not only are required for natural selection but are also subject to it, sexual reproduction has become ideally adapted to produce the right amount of variation and to allow new combinations of traits to be rapidly incorporated into an individual.

The evolution of reproduction

      An examination of the way in which organisms have changed since their initial unicellular condition in primeval times shows an increase in multicellularity and therefore an increase in the size of both plants and animals. After cell reproduction evolved into multicellular growth, the multicellular organism evolved a means of reproducing itself that is best described as life-cycle reproduction. Size increase has been accompanied by many mechanical requirements that have necessitated a selection for increased efficiency; the result has been a great increase in the complexity of organisms. In terms of reproduction this means a great increase in the permutations of cell reproduction during the process of evolutionary development.

      Size increase also means a longer life cycle, and with it a great diversity of patterns at different stages of the cycle. This is because each part of the life cycle is adaptive in that, through natural selection, certain characteristics have evolved for each stage that enable the organism to survive. The most extreme examples are those forms with two or more separate phases of their life cycle separated by a metamorphosis, as in caterpillars and butterflies; these phases may be shortened or extended by natural selection, as has occurred in different species of coelenterates.

      To reproduce efficiently in order to contribute effectively to subsequent generations is another factor that has evolved through natural selection. For instance, an organism can produce vast quantities of eggs of which, possibly by neglect, only a small percent will survive. On the other hand, an organism can produce very few or perhaps one egg, which, as it develops, will be cared for, thereby greatly increasing its chances for survival. These are two strategies of reproduction; each has its advantages and disadvantages. Many other considerations of the natural history and structure of the organism determine, through natural selection, the strategy that is best for a particular species; one of these is that any species must not produce too few offspring (for it will become extinct) or too many (for it may also become extinct by overpopulation (population) and disease). The numbers of some organisms fluctuate cyclically but always remain between upper and lower limits. The question of how, through natural selection, numbers of individuals are controlled is a matter of great interest; clearly, it involves factors that influence the rate of reproduction.

The evolution of variation control

      Because inherited variation is largely handled by genes in the chromosomes, organisms that reproduce sexually require a single-cell stage in their life cycle, during which the haploid gamete of each parent can combine to form the diploid zygote. This is also often true in organisms that reproduce asexually, but in this case the asexual reproductive bodies (e.g., spores) are small and hence are effectively dispersed.

      The amount of variation is controlled in a large number of ways, all of which involve a carefully balanced set of factors. These factors include whether the organism reproduces asexually or sexually; the mutation (gene change) rate; the number of chromosomes; the amount of exchange of parts of chromosomes (crossing over); the size of the individual (which correlates with complexity and generation time); the size of the population; the degree of inbreeding versus outbreeding; and the relative amounts and position of haploidy and diploidy in the life cycle. It is clear, therefore, that the mode of reproduction influences the amount of variation and vice versa; the two together permit natural selection to operate, and selection in turn modifies the mechanisms of reproduction and variation.

John Tyler Bonner

Additional Reading

The nature of reproduction is addressed in John Tyler Bonner, Size and Cycle (1965), a very general discussion of the evolutionary significance of life cycles in animals and plants; and James Watson, Molecular Biology of the Gene, 4th ed., 2 vol. (1987), an up-to-date summary of molecular replication by one of the pioneers in the field. John Tyler Bonner Ed.

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