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Contributor: Hannah Brooks. Lesson ID: 12556
Has anyone said that you look like your mother or father? Do you know any twins? What if everyone in the world looked exactly alike? For some organisms, that's the way it is, and they're fine with it!
Having babies is tough. Just ask any mom! Carrying and laying eggs is probably not a lot of fun for birds, either.
Some plants and animals reproduce an easier way!
Organisms use a variety of reproduction strategies to pass genetic information to offspring.
Asexual reproduction is a useful strategy when organisms need to reproduce rapidly and in large numbers.
In asexual reproduction, there is a single parent that transfers all its genetic material to the offspring. That means the offspring is genetically identical to the parent.
Organisms that use asexual reproduction include yeast, hydra, some fungi, and all prokaryotes. Remember, prokaryotes are organisms that lack a nucleus or membrane-bound organelles.
Notice how the hydra below forms a new organism off the original parent.
Asexual reproduction benefits organisms because they can reproduce very quickly and produce lots of offspring in each generation. Bacteria are a good example.
The image below shows a growth plate with bacteria. Bacterial colonies can go from invisible to covering the entire plate within a week!
Watch the video below and answer these questions.
In the Got It? section, learn more about a couple of important forms of asexual reproduction in depth.
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