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13: Sexual Reproduction

  • Page ID
    124130
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    Learning objectives
    • Understand the structure of DNA.
    • Compare the different states of ploidy and which process of cell division — mitosis or meiosis — they are produced from.
    • Recognize what happens to the chromosomes, cell wall, cell membrane, and nuclear membrane in each of the stages of mitosis and meiosis.
    • Compare the similarities and differences in the outcomes of mitosis and meiosis.

    Mitosis is essential to all plant propagation. It produces the mighty oak from a single zygote cell and makes all forms of propagation possible. The adventitious rooting process of any cutting begins with mitosis and continues through many mitotic divisions to produce a root meristem. Meiosis is also fundamental to plant propagation for the production of gametes that fuse, producing diversity for evolution and plant breeding.

    Thumbnail: Stages of mitosis in onion root tip. Melissa Ha. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0


    This page titled 13: Sexual Reproduction is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Teresa Friedrich Finnern via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.

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