|Plants & Human Affairs (BIOL106) - Stephen G. Saupe, Ph.D.;
Biology Department, College of St. Benedict/St. John's
University, Collegeville, MN 56321; email@example.com;
http://www.employees.csbsju.edu/ssaupe| In an abstract sense,
reproduction serves as the mechanism by which an individual
passes genetic information through time. According to Harold
Morowitz, one of my favorite science writers (hes a biochemist),
"an individual is the transient caretaker of the genetic
instructions that must be conveyed down the generations". So,
how do plants convey instructions from one generation to the
next? II. Plants can produce offspring without sex (asexual
reproduction) "A" means without; therefore asexual literally
translates into reproduction without sex. But, exactly what is
"sex"? - biologically "sex" is defined as the process that
involves meiosis and fertilization. Thus, during asexual
reproduction there is no production of gametes, no fertilization
and hence, no genetic recombination. Obviously the offspring