What are the advantages and disadvantages of asexual and sexual Essay

What are the advantages and disadvantages of asexual and sexual reproduction in animals - Essay Example Division of the zygote takes place repeatedly resulting to the growth of an embryo. This embryo grows inside the female or outside in other animals into multi cellular organism. As a result of the shared genetic information in sexual reproduction by the gametes, the off spring produced contains variety. This constitutes part of the advantages of sexual reproduction since the genetic variation gives the species an advantageous element of survival. Furthermore, genetic variation results to evolution of species which form better organisms (Kent, 2000). This species have better surviving traits in the unstable environments. Species which reproduce sexually have low extinction rates. This is beneficial as it ensures continuity of population. Sexual reproduction has several disadvantages. To this end, the need to have both male and female mate for reproduction is some time inconveniencing since both may not be willing (Rinkevich & Matranga, 2009). It also consumes excessive time and energy to look for a suitable partner. Moreover, there is no assurance after fertilization that the nucleus cell of male will fuse with the female cell. .Furthermore, counter-productive genetic combination conditions should be stable. Asexual reproduction involves one organism producing an offspring identical to it genetically. It requires one parent to reproduce. In single celled organisms the parent cells are split into two cells’ with equal content by binary fission. Multi-cellular organisms use a process known as mitosis to split cells into cells with equal number of chromosomes. Asexual reproduction has several advantages. One, it is very beneficial to the types of animals that stay in one area or not able to look for mates to reproduce. The fact that asexual reproduction does not need mating of female and male gives is advantageous to these animals as they are able to reproduce as they are. Another advantage, since no need to find a mate many off springs are produces