SEXUAL REPRODUCTION
We are also familiar with modes of reproduction that depend on the involvement of two individuals before a new generation can be created. Bulls alone cannot produce new calves, nor can hens alone produce new chicks. In such cases, both sexes, males and females, are needed to produce new generations. What is the significance of this sexual mode of reproduction? Are there any limitations of the asexual mode of reproduction, which we have been discussing above?
Why the Sexual Mode of Reproduction?
The creation of two new cells from one involves copying of the DNA as well as of the cellular apparatus. The DNA copying mechanism, as we have noted, cannot be absolutely accurate, and the resultant errors are a source of variations in populations of organisms. Every individual organism cannot be protected by variations, but in a population, variations are useful for ensuring the survival of the species. It would therefore make sense if organisms came up with reproductive modes that allowed more and more variation to be generated.
While DNA-copying mechanisms are not absolutely accurate, they are precise enough to make the generation of variation a fairly slow process. If the DNA copying mechanisms were to be less accurate, many of the resultant DNA copies would not be able to work with the cellular apparatus, and would die. So how can the process of making variants be speeded up? Each new variation is made in a DNA copy that already has variations accumulated from previous generations. Thus, two different individuals in a population would have quite different patterns of accumulated variations. Since all of these variations are in living individuals, it is assured that they do not have any really bad effects. Combining variations from two or more individuals would thus create new combinations of variants. Each combination would be novel, since it would involve two different individuals. The sexual mode of reproduction incorporates such a process of combining DNA from two different individuals during reproduction.
But this creates a major difficulty. If each new generation is to be the combination of the DNA copies from two pre-existing individuals, then each new generation will end up having twice the amount of DNA that the previous generation had. This is likely to mess up the control of the cellular apparatus by the DNA. Besides, if each generation doubles its DNA, fairly soon there will be only DNA on earth, with no room for anything else. How many ways can we think of for solving this difficulty?
We have seen earlier that as organisms become more complex, the specialisation of tissue increases. One solution that many multi-cellular organisms have found for the problem mentioned above is to have special lineages of cells in specialised organs which have only half the number of chromosomes and half the amount of DNA as compared to the nonreproductive body cells. Thus, when these germ-cells from two individuals combine during sexual reproduction to form a new individual, it results in re-establishment of the number of chromosomes and the DNA content in the new generation.
If the zygote is to grow and develop into an organism which has highly specialised tissues and organs, then it has to have sufficient stores of energy for doing this. In very simple organisms, it is seen that the two germ-cells are not very different from one another, or may even be similar. But as the body designs become more complex, the germ-cells also specialise. One germ-cell is large and contains the food-stores while the other is smaller and likely to be motile. Conventionally, the motile germcell is called the male gamete and the germ-cell containing the stored food is called the female gamete. We shall see in the next few sections how the need to create these two different types of gametes give rise to differences in the male and female reproductive organs and, in some cases, differences in the bodies of the male and female organisms.
