Introduction to Zoology
Chapter Two: Reproduction in
animals
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What is Reproduction?
What are types of reproduction?
Reproduction is the process by w/h living organisms
propagate or duplicate their own kind.
It is the production of offspring or new individuals
through a sexual/asexual process.
Two modes of reproduction are recognized, these are
asexual and sexual modes of reproduction.
2.1. Mechanisms of reproduction in animals
A. Reproduction in Different Animals
In the biological sense, reproduction means
producing offspring that may (or may not) be exact
copies of the parents.
Reproduction is part of a life cycle, a recurring frame
of events in which animals grow, develop, and
reproduce accordingly to their parents.
One of the two major types of reproduction in the
biological world is asexual reproduction.
1. Asexual Reproduction: is the development of new
individual without the fusion of the male and female
gametes.
In asexual reproduction there is only one parent and
there are no special reproductive organs or cells.
It is producing of genetically identical copies of itself
as soon as it becomes an adult.
The production of copies is simple, direct, and
typically rapid.
Usually include the mitotic cell division of the
nucleus and cytoplasm of the body (somatic) cell.
Therefore, asexual reproduction is known as
somatogenic or blastogenic reproduction.
Types of asexual reproduction are fission, budding,
regeneration and etc
I. Fission: Protista and some animals (cnidarians and
annelids) may reproduce by fission.
Fission (the act of splitting) is the division of one cell,
or body part into two.
In this process, the cell pinches in two by an inward
furrowing of the plasma membrane.
Binary fission occurs when the division is equal; each
offspring contains approximately equal amounts of
protoplasm and associated structures.
Binary fission is common in protozoa.
In fission, the plane of division may be irregular,
transverse, or longitudinal, depending on the species.
For example, the multicellular, free-living flatworms,
such as the common planarian, reproduce by
longitudinal fission.
Multiple fission is a form of asexual reproduction
where a single parent cell divides into numerous
daughter cells. Eg. Some flatworms and annelids
Types of Binary Fission
Irregular: It occurs in amoebae having irregular
symmetry.
The plane of cell division is variable, or it occurs
along any axis.
Longitudinal: It occurs in flagellates (like Euglena)
and ciliates (like Vorticella).
The cell division occurs along a vertical axis that
divides a cell’s nucleus and cytoplasm longitudinally.
Transverse: It commonly occurs in ciliates like
Paramecium.
The cell division occurs at a horizontal axis.
Oblique: It occurs in dinoflagellates like Ceratium.
The cell division along a diagonal
II. Budding
Budding refers to a method where a new organism
develops as an outgrowth or "bud" from the parent
organism.
For example, in the cnidarian Hydra and many species
of sponges, divide rapidly and develop on the body
surface and form an external bud.
The bud cells proliferate and form a cylindrical
structure, which develops into a new animal.
If the buds remain attached to the parent, they form a
colony.
A colony is a group of closely associated individuals of
one species.
Internal budding (as in the freshwater sponges)
produces gemmules (also called gemmulation), which
are collections of many cells surrounded by a body
wall.
When the body of the parent dies and
degenerates, each gemmule gives rise to a new
individual.
III. Fragmentation:
Fragmentation is a type of asexual reproduction
whereby a body part is lost and then regenerates into
a new organism.
Fragmentation occurs in some cnidarians,
platyhelminthes, rhynchocoels, and echinoderms.
For example, in sea anemones, as the organism
moves, small pieces break off from the adult and
develop into new individuals.
IV. Parthenogenesis
Is asexual reproduction where an embryo develops
from an unfertilized egg.
Certain flatworms, rotifers, roundworms, insects,
lobsters, and others can reproduce without sperm
cell and normal fertilization.
Parthenogenesis is a spontaneous activation of a
mature egg, followed by normal egg divisions and
subsequent embryonic development.
"Parthenogenesis" comes from Greek words
"parthenos" (virgin) and "genesis" (creation).
It can occur mainly in the following two ways:
A. Automixis: is a process in which reproductive cells
are produced by meiosis.
Due to meiotic division during egg cell
development (oogenesis), the resulting daughter
cells are divided unequally which results in the
formation of one large egg cell called oocyte and
smaller cells called polar bodies.
The egg cell is haploid and becomes diploid by
duplicating its chromosome or by fusing with the
polar body.
The fusion of haploid egg cells with a polar body is
known as automixis.
The resulting offspring are produced by meiosis
and, hence are not clones of the parent cell
(genetically not identical).
This mechanism is mostly observed in sharks.
B. Apomixis: is a process in which reproductive cells
do not undergo meiosis and are multiplied by mitosis.
The resulting offspring are identical copies/clones
of their parents and are developed into diploid
offspring.
It is also known as apomictic parthenogenesis.
This mechanism is most common in plants and in
some aphids.
2. Sexual reproduction
In sexual reproduction, the offspring have
unique combinations of genes inherited from the two
parents.
Offspring of a sexual union are somewhat different
from their parents and siblings, they have genetic
diversity.
Each new individual represents a combination of
traits derived from two parents because
fertilization unites one gamete from each parent.
Fertilization can be occurred in either of
two ways:
A. External Fertilization:
Many invertebrates (e.g., sponges and corals) simply
release their gametes into the water in which they
live, allowing external fertilization to occur.
In these invertebrates, the gonads are usually simple
that produce and release gametes from the body
through various arrangements of coelomic ducts
(annelid worm), metanephridia (annelids, arthropods,
and mollusks), sperm ducts, or oviducts.
B. Internal Fertilization:
Other invertebrates (from flatworms to insects)
utilize internal fertilization to transfer sperm from
male to female and have structures that facilitate
such transfer.
In the male, sperm are produced in the testes and
transported via a sperm duct to a storage area called
the seminal vesicle.
Prior to mating, some invertebrates (e.g.,
cephalopods, scorpions, leeches, and some insects)
incorporate many sperm into packets termed
spermatophores.
Spermatophores provide a protective casing for
sperm and facilitate the transfer of large numbers of
sperm with minimal loss.
Some spermatophores are even motile and act as
independent sperm carriers.
Sperm or the spermatophores are then passed into an
ejaculatory duct to a copulatory organ (e.g., penis,
cirrus (tapeworm), and gonopore (insects)).
The copulatory organ is used as an intromittent
structure to introduce sperm into the female‘s
system.
Various accessory glands (e.g., seminal vesicle) may
be present in males that produce seminal fluid or
spermatophores.
In the female, ova (eggs) are produced in the ovaries
and transported to the oviduct.
Sperm move up the oviduct, where they encounter
the ova and fertilize them.
TYPES OF SEXUAL REPRODUCTION
Hermaphroditism (Gr. hermaphroditos, an organism
with the attributes of both sexes) occurs when an
animal has both functional male and female
reproductive systems.
.
This dual sexuality is sometimes called the
monoecious (Gr. monos, single & oikos, house)
condition.
Some hermaphrodites fertilize themselves, most also
mate with another member of the same species (e.g.,
earthworms and sea slugs).
When this occurs, each animal serves as male and
female, donating and receiving sperm.
Hermaphroditism is especially beneficial to sessile
(attached) animals (e.g., barnacles) that may only
occasionally encounter the opposite sex.
Conjugation: It is a type of sexual reproduction
process where two individuals temporarily fuse and
exchange their genetic materials through the
pronuclei.
It is seen in certain protozoa, algae, fungi, and
bacteria.
In the process, they either mutually exchange their
genetic materials or completely transfer the genetic
material of one to the other, or they both fuse
together to form a zygote.
Syngamy: It is the process of complete and
permanent fusion of haploid male and female
gametes to form a diploid zygote.
Based on the number of parents involved (or the
source of gametes), syngamy is of two types:
a. Exogamy (Cross-fertilization or Allogamy)
It is a biparental system where two different parents
of opposite gender are involved in the process of
sexual reproduction.
The male parent (father) produces sperm, while the
female parent (mother) produces the ovum.
The two gametes produced by different individuals
fuse in the fertilization process.
It is the most common type of sexual reproduction
and is seen in mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles,
plants, etc.
The individual involved in the process is called
dioecious individuals.
The gametes are transferred during copulation or
pollination in the internal fertilization process, and
by water in the external fertilization process.
b. Endogamy (Self-fertilization or Autogamy)
It is a type of syngamy where male and female
gametes are produced by a single individual fuse to
form a zygote.
Such individuals are called monoecious or
hermaphrodite.
The reproduction process is also called
hermaphroditism.
The fertilization process is called self-fertilization.
It is seen in a few lower invertebrates, such as
earthworms, tapeworms, slugs, etc., and most of the
flowering plants.
Based on the structure of gametes involved,
syngamy is of two types:
a. Isogamy: It is a type of syngamy where the fusing
gametes are morphologically similar to each other.
The male and female gametes are morphologically
identical and are called the isogametes.
Example: all unicellular eukaryotes, a few fungi, and
algae; such as Spirogyra, Chlamydomonas, baker‘s
yeast, etc.
b. Anisogamy: It is a type of syngamy where the fusing
of male and female gametes is of different shapes and
sizes.
These gametes can be morphologically
differentiated.
This leads to sexual dimorphism, and hence the
parents are classified as male and female.
It is seen in mammals, amphibians, reptiles, plants,
birds, fungi, etc.
Male gametes are smaller and called microgametes
or sperms.
Female gametes are larger and called macrogametes
or ova (eggs).
The sperm and ovum may be motile or non-motile.
In most of the higher animals, an ovum is large non-
motile while the sperm is small and motile.
The fusion of such a non-motile ovum with a small
motile is called oogamy.
Examples that show oogamy are mammals, birds,
fishes, plants, etc.
There are other special modes of sexual
reproduction, like:
Hologamy: where the whole individual act as a
gamete and fuses together. E.g. in Chlamydomonas,
Rhizopoda, etc.
Macrogamy: is the fusion of two macrogametes.
E.g. in Heliozoa
Microgamy: is the fusion of two microgametes. E.g.
in Arcella and foraminers protozoa.
Paedogamy: is the fusion of two immature
individuals acting as gametes that are produced by a
single parent. E.g., in Actinosphaerium
Cytogamy: is the fusion of cytoplasm instead of
nucleus. E.g., in Paramecium