Reproductive

Processes
Nature of Reproductive Process
• Two modes of Reproduction
• Asexual Reproduction
• Sexual Reproduction
• Asexual Reproduction
• One parent with no special
reproductive organ or cells.
• Sexual Reproduction
• Involves two individual, each
contribute special gametes that,
once united during the process
of fertilization, developed into a
new individual
Nature of Reproductive Process
• Asexual Reproduction
• Production of individual without
gametes
• Clones
• Appears in bacteria and unicellular
prokaryotes and in many
invertebrate phyla such as
cnidarians, bryozoans, annelids,
echinoderms, and hemichordates.
• Rare among vertebrates
• There are at least 50 species that
reproduce by parthenogenesis
Nature of Reproductive Process
• Asexual Reproduction
• Binary Fission
• Common among bacteria
and protozoa or unicellular
eukaryotes
• The body of its parents
divides by mitosis into two
approximately equal parts
• Maybe lengthwise, as in
flagellate unicellular
eukaryote or transverse, as
in ciliate unicellular
eukaryote
Nature of Reproductive Process
• Asexual Reproduction
• Multiple Fission or Schizogony
• Nucleus divides repeatedly before the
division of cytoplasm, producing many
daughter cells simultaneously.
• Sporogony
• Spore formation
• Common among some parasitic
unicellular eukaryotes (malarial
parasites)
Nature of Reproductive Process
• Asexual Reproduction
• Budding
• Unequal division of an organism
• Arises as an outgrowth from its
parent, develops organs like those of
the parent and then detaches itself.
• Prominent in cnidarians
Nature of Reproductive Process
• Asexual Reproduction
• Gemmulation
• Formation of new individual from an
aggregation of cells surrounded by a
resistant capsule called gemmule.
• In freshwater sponge, gemmules
developed in the fall and survive the
winter in the dried or frozen body of
the parent.
• In spring, the enclosed cells
become active, emerge from the
capsule, and grow into a new
sponge.
Nature of Reproductive Process
• Asexual Reproduction
• Fragmentation
• A multicellular animal
breaks into two or more
parts, with each
fragment capable of
becoming a complete
individual
• Sea anemones and many
hydroids
Nature of Reproductive Process
• Sexual Reproduction
• Production of individual by gametes
• Includes bisexual or biparental
reproduction
• Hermaphroditism and
parthenogenesis are less common
forms of sexual reproduction
Nature of Reproductive Process
• Sexual Reproduction
• Bisexual reproduction
• Union of gametes from two
genetically different parents
Nature of Reproductive Process
• Sexual Reproduction
• Each parent has its own
reproductive system and produces
only one kind of germ cell,
spermatozoon or ovum, rarely both
• Dioecious
• Separate sexes
• Monoecious
• Have both male and female
reproductive organ, these animals
are called hermaphrodites
Nature of Reproductive Process
• Sexual Reproduction
• Hermaphroditism
• A condition that have both male and
female organs in the same individual.
• Some hermaphrodites fertilize
themselves, but most avoid self-
fertilization by exchanging germ cells
with another member of the same
species
• Some fishes are sequential
hermaphrodites
Nature of Reproductive Process
• Sexual Reproduction
• Parthenogenesis
• “virgin origin”
• Development of an embryo from an
unfertilized egg or one in which the
male and female nuclei fail to unite
following fertilization.
• Ameiotic or diploid parthenogenesis
• No meiosis occurs, egg is formed
by mitotic cell division.
• Asexual form of parthenogenesis
• Occurs in some species of
flatworms, rotifers,
Nature of Reproductive Process
• Sexual Reproduction
• Parthenogenesis
• Meiotic parthenogenesis
• Haploid ovum is formed by
meiosis, and may or may not be
activated by the influence of
male’s sperm.
• In several species of flatworms,
rotifers, annelids, mites, and
insects, the haploid egg begins
development spontaneously; no
males are required to stimulate
activation of an ovum.
Origin and Maturation of Germ Cells
• Migration of Germ Cells
• In vertebrates, the actual tissue from which gonads arise appears in early embryonic
development.
Origin and Maturation of Germ Cells
• Gametogenesis
• Production of mature gametes
• Spermatogenesis in testis
• Oogenesis in ovaries
Structure of Reproductive Systems
• Sexual system consists of two components:
• Primary organs
• Gonads that produce sperm and egg, and sex hormones
• Accessory organs
• Assist gonads in formation and delivery of gametes, also serve to
support the embryo.
Structure of Reproductive Systems
• Invertebrate Reproductive Systems
• Invertebrates that transfer sperm from
male to female require organs and
plumbing for internal fertilization that
may be as complex as those of any
vertebrate.
• Reproductive systems of invertebrates
that simply release their gametes into
water for external fertilization may be
little more than centers of
gametogenesis.
Structure of Reproductive Systems
• Invertebrate Reproductive Systems
• Insects have separate sexes
(dioecious), practice internal
fertilization by copulation and
insemination, and consequently have
a complex reproductive system.
• In male fishes and amphibians, the
ducts that drains the kidney also
serves as a sperm duct.
• In male reptile, birds, and mammals in
which the kidney develops in its own
independent duct (ureter) to carry
away waste, the old mesonephric duct
becomes exclusively a sperm duct or
vas deferens.
Structure of Reproductive Systems
• Invertebrate Reproductive Systems
• In all of these forms, with the
exception of most mammals, the ducts
open into cloaca, a common chamber
into which intestinal, reproductive,
and excretory canals empty.
• Almost all placental mammals have no
cloaca; instead the urogenital system
has its own opening separate from the
anal opening.
Structure of Reproductive Systems
• Male Reproductive System
• It includes testes, vasa efferentia,
vas deferens, accessory glands,
and (in some birds, reptiles and
mammals) a penis.
• Testes – site of sperm production
• Seminiferous tubules – sperm are
developed
• Sertoli cells – nourishes the
developing sperm
• Leydig cells – produce the male
sex hormone (testosterone)
Structure of Reproductive Systems
• Male Reproductive System
• In most mammals, the two testes
are housed permanently in a
saclike scrotum suspended
outside the abdominal cavity, or
the testes descend into the
scrotum during the breeding
season.
Structure of Reproductive Systems
• Male Reproductive System
• Most aquatic vertebrates have no
need for a penis, because sperm
and egg are liberated into the
water in close proximity to each
other.
• However, in terrestrial vertebrates
that bear their young alive or
enclose the egg within a shell or
egg case, sperm must be
transferred to the female.
Structure of Reproductive Systems
• Male Reproductive System
• Few birds have a true penis
(examples of exceptions are the
ostrich and the Argentine lake
duck) and the mating process
simply involves pressing cloaca to
cloaca.
Structure of Reproductive Systems
• Male Reproductive
System
• Most reptiles and
mammals have a true
penis.
• in mammals the normally
flaccid organ becomes
erect when engorged with
blood.
• Some mammals possess
bone in the penis
(baculum), which
presumably helps with
rigidity and therefore
sperm transfer.
Structure of Reproductive Systems
• Female Reproductive System
• The ovaries of female vertebrates produce
both ova and female sex hormones.
• Oviduct – a funnel like opening (Fallopian
tube or uterine tube)
• Uterus – shelled eggs are held before laying
or embryo complete its development
• Follicle – oocytes are developed and
enlarges to finally rupture and produce
secondary oocytes
• Vagina – a muscular tube adapted to receive
the male’s penis and serves as the birth
canal during expulsion of fetus from uterus.
• Labia – external genitalia
• Clitoris – small erectile organ (female
homolog of glans penis of males)
Endocrine Events that Orchestrate
Reproduction
• Hormonal Control of Timing of
Reproductive Cycles
• From fishes to mammals, reproduction in
vertebrates is usually a seasonal or cyclic
activity.
• Timing is crucial
• Sexual reproductive process is controlled
by hormones
• Hypothalamus
• Regulates the release of anterior pituitary
gland hormones, some of which stimulate
tissues of the gonads.
Endocrine Events that Orchestrate
Reproduction
• Hormonal Control of Timing of
Reproductive Cycles
• Two types of cyclic reproductive pattern:
• Estrous cycle
• Characteristics of most mammals
• Menstrual cycle
• Characteristic only of the anthropoid
primates (monkeys, apes, and humans)
Endocrine Events that Orchestrate
Reproduction
• Hormonal Control of Timing of
Reproductive Cycles
• Females are perceptive to males only
during brief periods of estrus, or “heat”,
whereas menstrual cycle receptivity may
occur throughout the cycle.
• Each cycle ends with the endometrium
simply reverting to its original state,
without the discharge characteristic of
the menstrual cycle.
Endocrine Events that Orchestrate
Reproduction
• Gonadal Steroids and Their Control
• The ovaries of female vertebrates produce two kinds of steroid sex hormones
– Estrogen and Progesterone
• Estrogen
• Responsible for development of female accessory structures (oviducts, uterus, and
vagina) and for stimulating female reproductive activity.
• Secondary sex characters (behavioral and functional success of reproduction)
• Secondary sexual characteristics (skin/feather coloration, bone development, body size,
and in mammals development of mammary gland)
• In Female mammal, both estrogen and progesterone are responsible for
preparing the uterus to receive a developing embryo.
Endocrine Events that Orchestrate
Reproduction
• Gonadal Steroids and Their Control
• Anterior Pituitary Gonadotropins controls the Follicle-Stimulating Hormone
(FSH) and Luteinizing Hormone (LH).
• The release of these two Gonadotropinreleasing hormone (GnRH), produced by
neurosecretory cells in the hypothalamus.
• Environmental factors such as light, nutrition and stress may influence reproductive
cycles.
• The male sex steroid, Testosterone is manufactured by interstitial cells of the
testes.
• Testosterone and its metabolite, dihydrotestosterone (DHT), are necessary for
the growth and development of the male accessory structures (penis, sperm
ducts, and glands), development of secondary male sex characters (bone,
muscle growth, male plumage, antlers in deers, and in humans, voice quality),
and male sex behavior.
Endocrine Events that Orchestrate
Reproduction
• Gonadal Steroids and Their Control
• Development of the testes and secretion of testosterone is controlled by FSH and LH.
• Ovary and the testes secrete a peptide hormone, inhibin, which is secreted by the
developing follicles in the female and by the sertoli cells in the males.
• REFERENCES:

• Some pictures are from [Link]