THE IMPORTANCE OF REPRODUCTION: 10 REASONS - BIOLOGY - 2025

The importance of reproduction is that it is a vital function of living beings that allows species to survive. Without reproducing, the species do not survive and end up becoming extinct. Therefore, for living beings to exist, they have to reproduce, either sexually or asexually.

Reproduction is the process through which identical or nearly identical replicas of an organism are created. In other words, reproduction is a process that allows the generation of new individuals. In general terms, reproduction is one of the most relevant concepts in biology, since it guarantees the continuity of a species.

There are two types of reproduction: asexual and sexual. Asexual reproduction is a process in which cell division occurs to generate an individual identical to its parent. In unicellular organisms, this process is called binary fission because the mother cell divides in two, giving rise to a daughter cell.

Some examples of organisms that reproduce asexually are: bacteria, starfish (which can produce a new organism from one of their arms), sponges, ferns, potatoes, and onions.

On the other hand, sexual reproduction involves the union of a male cell and a female cell (called sperm and eggs respectively).

Many organisms reproduce sexually, such as some plants and animals, including humans.

The perpetration of species is the end of all living things. Hence the importance of reproduction, which allows the creation of new individuals guaranteeing the survival of the species.

Reasons for the importance of reproduction

1- It allows to comply with the life cycle

According to the cycle of life, all organisms are born, reproduce and die. In this sense, reproduction is a relevant element for the life cycle because it allows the birth of new individuals, which will later reproduce, giving rise to other individuals, and so on.

2- Guarantee the next generation

Breeding is the only method to guarantee the existence of a relay generation (excluding cloning, which is still experimental work, despite the fact that progress has been made in this area).

In this sense, reproduction ensures the continuity of the species, preventing them from becoming extinct.

3- Heredity: It allows transmitting the characteristics of the parents to the children

The unique properties of individuals contained in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) are passed from one generation to another through reproduction, allowing new individuals to inherit characteristics from their parents.

4- It allows to create variations in the species

Through sexual reproduction, individuals are produced that have half their father's genetic makeup and half their mother's genetic makeup, so the individual will not be an exact copy of either of their two parents.

This allows creating small variations between individuals of the species (which would not be achieved through cloning, for example).

5- The accumulation of variations within the same species generated give rise to new species

Over the years, the small variations that arise during reproduction are added to other variations, giving rise to much more evident changes that, eventually, will allow the appearance of a new species.

6- Asexual reproduction allows the creation of genetically modified crops

Asexual reproduction has been extensively studied by scientists and these studies have been used in the area of ​​agriculture.

In this sense, seeds have been produced by asexual reproduction that have been genetically modified so that they are capable of resisting certain conditions (high temperatures, pests, among others), which is beneficial for this field.

7- The cloning of organisms, tissues and organs

Studies based on asexual reproduction have also made progress in the cloning of animal organisms. One of the examples in this area is Dolly the sheep.

In addition to creating new organisms, studies of asexual reproduction also focus on the creation of cloned tissues and organs from stem cells.

This would contribute to the life of human beings in many aspects, such as organ transplantation. In this way, the possibility of the patient rejecting the organ would be avoided, since when cloned, it would be identical to the previous organ.

8- It is not a stage, it is the story of life!

Reproduction is not just a stage of life, as many people would be inclined to think, but it constitutes the life history of the species that inhabit planet Earth.

As already explained, beings have DNA molecules that contain genetic information that is passed from one generation to another through reproduction, producing small changes.

In this sense, if all these small changes are organized chronologically, the life history of a species can be obtained.

9- natural selection and reproduction

When Charles Darwin formulated the theory of natural selection, he indicated that for the evolution of species to occur, they had to be able to create non-identical copies of themselves, a concept that he called "variation" and that corresponds to sexual reproduction.

As successful variations emerged and accumulated, new generations would benefit more. Likewise, Darwin pointed out that for these variations to be beneficial for successive generations, they must be inherited.

10- Group immortality

Reproduction is a process that occurs in all living things that not only helps maintain the continuity of species but also creates a kind of group immortality.

When an organism reproduces, it passes part of its DNA to its descendants; in turn, this DNA molecule contains fragments of genetic information from their parents, from their grandparents, from their great-great-grandparents, so it can be said that, as a group, these organisms have managed to be immortal.

References

1. What is reproduction. Retrieved on June 14, 2017, from johnfriedmann.com.
2. Reproduction. Retrieved on June 14, 2017, from en.wikipedia.org.
3. Reproduction. Retrieved on June 14, 2017, from britannica.org.
4. Cell division. Retrieved on June 14, 2017, from britannica.com.
5. Life cycle. Retrieved on June 14, 2017, from msnucleus.org.
6. Sexual reproduction. Retrieved on June 14, 2017, from forum.byjus.com.
7. Asexual reproduction. Retrieved on June 14, 2017, from en.wikipedia.org.