what is the biological advantage of sexual reproduction over asexual reproduction?
832249
Two is better and more fun than one.
172649
Think about the advantages of each reproductive mode. Asexual is easy, and fast, and the offspring are clones.\nSexual is more complex and the offspring get a combination of both parents' genome, as well as new variations that could have arisen during gamete production. Natural selection, which will influence these organisms heavily under changing conditions, acts upon these random variations.
1022986
Two potentially unresolved questions in evolutionary biology are how and why did sex evolve (the big unresolved issue), and why only two as opposed to more sexes is stable. theory allegedly predicts three is more stable and better than two for example.\n\nYour text book anwsers, like recombination to break the linkage between "good" and "bad" genes and to avoid parasites (red queen hypothesis) explain why sex, ONCE it has evolved, is stable and selected for, BUT not how or why it evolved.\n\nPerhaps you should consider work by Lynn Marguilas et al. on the symbiont theory. Although now largely accepted that organelles like the mitochondria and chloroplast are degenearte symbionts, and less accepted that the nucleus is too, extrapolation of this theory would allow (account for) for the evolution of diploidy and reductive meisois (and thus sexual reproduction) by having two organisms (one aerobic the other anerobic) merging and seperating according to the oxygen levels (oxygen was at first a highly toxic compound to life untill aerobic metabolism evolved). \n\nBy the way hemaphrodites are still sexual, even selfing ones.\n\nAnd additionaly please note and remember for future that sexual discrimination, like homosexual discrimination, and so on, is neither a prerequisite nor a product of sexual reproduction.
301358
Nearly all animals undergo some form of sexual reproduction. Adults are diploid or occasionally polyploid. They have a few specialized reproductive cells, which undergo meiosis to produce smaller motile spermatozoa or larger non-motile ova. These fuse to form zygotes, which develop into new individuals.\n\nMany animals are also capable of asexual reproduction. This may take place through parthenogenesis, where fertile eggs are produced without mating, or in some cases through fragmentation.\n\nA zygote initially develops into a hollow sphere, called a blastula, which undergoes rearrangement and differentiation. In sponges, blastula larvae swim to a new location and develop into a new sponge. In most other groups, the blastula undergoes more complicated rearrangement. It first invaginates to form a gastrula with a digestive chamber, and two separate germ layers - an external ectoderm and an internal endoderm. In most cases, a mesoderm also develops between them. These germ layers then differentiate to form tissues and organs.\n\nAnimals grow by indirectly using the energy of sunlight. Plants use this energy to turn air into simple sugars using a process known as photosynthesis. These sugars are then used as the building blocks which allow the plant to grow. When animals eat these plants (or eat other animals which have eaten plants), the sugars produced by the plant are used by the animal. They are either used directly to help the animal grow, or broken down, releasing stored solar energy, and giving the animal the energy required for motion. This process is known as glycolysis.
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Because they have DNA from BOTH parents.  That is the point of sexual reproduction: mix so that each individual is a bit different, an experiement in optimisation, and has a little bit of both "successful' (since they were able to reproduce) parents.
44144
Evolution of reproduction. Nature finds its way.
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Please take the time to\nvote for the best answer\n\nThank You!!\n\nI know this is for take yr pick\n\nConditions for natural selection\n\nThe excess fecundity, and consequent competition to survive, in every species provides the precondition for the process Darwin called natural selection. Natural selection is easiest to understand as a logical argument, leading from premises to conclusion. The argument requires the four conditions listed below.\n\n1. Reproduction. Entities must reproduce to form a new generation.\n\n2. Heredity. The offspring must tend to resemble their parents: roughly speaking, 'like must produce like'. This condition is provided by Mendelian inheritance.\n\n3. Variation in characteristics of the members of the population. \n\n4. Variation in the fitness of organisms associated with these characteristics. \n\nProvided these conditions are met for any property of a species, natural selection automatically results, as in the case of the peppered moth. If any are not, it does not. Thus entities, like planets, that do not reproduce cannot evolve by natural selection. But when the four conditions apply, the organisms with the property conferring higher fitness will leave more offspring, and the frequency of that type of organism will increase in the population. \n\nThe biologist Richard Dawkins argues that there is possibly only one condition for natural selection.
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Yeast can reproduce both sexually and asexually.  It can bud off to creat offspring genetically identical to the parent.  However, when resources are scarce, yeast cells can form ascospores and sexually reproduce.  Sexual reproduction may create offspring more suitable to the environment and better able to utilize scarce resources, so it is utilized in times of hardship.\n\nHope this helps, please don't forget to come back and mark a best answer!\n\nMore information can be found here:\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeast
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They aren't asexual, they're hermaphrodites. They can fertilize themselves or slither along side a willing recipient and fertilize him/her. The young are born alive, very small.
883010
click here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_reproduction\nis needed for existence of race
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Mitosis produces two cells which are genetically identical to the original one. There is no exchange of genes between two organisms, and so mitosis is a type of asexual reproduction.
911131
People are born gay. It is scientific fact that there are biological differences between homosexual and heterosexual people.
17735
These two processes are mechanisms that increase genetic diversity in organisms that reproduce by sexual reproduction.
342375
Natural instinct. Humans need to realize that sex is just to reproduce, and we should not focus on it much. There are better  things to do: increase our knowledge, revolutionize technology, stop environmental problems are just a few.
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Most phytoplankton, especially flagellate plant plankton, like dinoflaggelates, are possibly capable of using both sexual and non-sexual reproduction, but most use mitosis-asexual most the time. Depends on species, env factors, water conditions.
586577
I don't think so. homogeneous populations are more vulnerable to diseases. This is because large numbers of the population share the same genes. The more diversified the gene pool the better the chances of survival. That's one of the reasons people reproduce sexually as opposed to asexually. So spread those genes around. :)
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The paradox of sex: The "cost" of males\nScience writer Matt Ridley wrote a book The Red Queen in which he discussed the debate in theoretical biology over the adaptive benefit of sexual reproduction to those species in which it appears. The connection of the Red Queen to this debate arises from the fact that the traditionally accepted theory (The Vicar of Bray) only showed adaptive benefit at the level of the species or group, not at the level of the gene. By contrast, a Red-Queen-type theory that organisms are running cyclic arms races with their parasites can explain the utility of sexual reproduction at the level of the gene by positing that the role of sex is to preserve genes which are currently disadvantageous, but which will become advantageous against the background of a likely future population of parasites.\n\nSex is an evolutionary puzzle. In most sexual species, males make up half the population, yet they bear no offspring directly and generally contribute little to the survival of offspring; indeed in some species males pose a positive threat to live young fathered by another male (although this is simply a manifestation of Dawkins' so-called selfish gene, whose goal is to reproduce itself and suppress the reproduction of other genes). Obviously there are species which are exceptions to this rule, such as humans, seahorses, and penguins, amongst others. In addition, males and females must find each other to mate, and sexual selection often favors traits that reduce the survival of organisms. Thus, sexual reproduction is highly inefficient.\n\nOne possible explanation for the fact that nearly all vertebrates are sexual is that sex increases the rate at which adaptation can occur. This is for two reasons. First, if an advantageous mutation occurs in an asexual line, it is impossible for that mutation to spread without wiping out all other lines, which may have different advantageous mutations of their own. Second, it mixes up genes. Some genes might be advantageous only when paired with other genes, and sex increases the likelihood that such pairings will occur.\n\nFor sex to be advantageous for these reasons requires constant selection for changing conditions. One factor that might cause this is the constant arms race between parasites and their hosts. Parasites generally evolve quickly, due to their short lifespans. As they evolve, they attack their hosts in a variety of ways. Two consecutive generations might be faced with very different selective pressures. If this change is rapid enough, it might explain the persistence of sex.