Understanding Reproduction

Featuring examples from all kinds of living organisms, this book offers a fresh view on sex and reproduction.

Giuseppe Fusco (Author), Alessandro Minelli (Author)

9781009225939, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 10 August 2023

225 pages
17.8 x 12.7 x 1.2 cm, 0.213 kg

'As a plant biologist, I often find myself trying to explain reproduction in plants as though they are somehow an anomaly rather than just another way of reaching the same goal following first principles. This perception of anomaly comes from a pedagogical bias of teaching reproduction as 'sex in mammals'. This book ties together concepts regardless of organism, drawing clear lines between a complex diversity of patterns and their underlying reproductive processes.' Chelsea D. Specht, Barbara McClintock Professor in Plant Biology, Cornell University, USA

Our understanding of reproduction and reproductive processes is often biased towards the behaviour of organisms most familiar to us. As such, the amazing disparity of the phenomena of reproduction and sex is often overlooked. Understanding Reproduction addresses all the main facets of this large chapter of the life sciences, including discussions of asexual reproduction, parthenogenesis, sex determination, reproductive effort, and much more. The book features an abundance of examples from across the tree of life, including animals, plants, fungi, protists and bacteria. Written in an accessible and easy to digest style, overcoming the intimidating diversity of the technical terminology, this book will appeal to interested general readers, biologists, science educators, philosophers and medical doctors.

1. Individuals and Reproduction
2. Reproduction in the Life Cycle
3. Reproduction Without Sex
4. Reproduction with Sex
5. Two-Parent Sexual Reproduction
6. One-Parent (or Nearly so) Sexual Reproduction
7. Development of Sexual Traits
8. Widening the View: Reproductive Strategies
Concluding Remarks: Difficult Boundaries.

Subject Areas: Developmental biology [PSC]