Asexual reproduction is the term for reproduction that only involves one parent individual. The parent produces an offspring without genetic contribution of another individual of its species. As a consequence the offspring does not have genes that are not present in the parent. The offspring can be genetically different than the parent because of mutation, recombination and loss of genetic material.
The opposite to asexual reproduction is sexual reproduction.
When displaying crossings between two parental organisms, the resulting offspring are referred to as F1. If those offspring are crossed between themselves, the resulting generation is called F2….
Heterosis is the phenomenon whereby first generation (F1) hybrids have higher trait values than their parents (Charlesworth and Willis 2009). These F1 hybrids can be produced by parents…
Low food availability and high energy expenditure are not exclusively found in cold winter climates, but can also occur in hot, dry climates in summer. Desert ecosystems face…
Some animals hibernate to save energy in times of low energy intake, e.g. due to low food availability. What are the costs and benefits of hibernation? I’ll explain…
The maintenance of a high body temperature is a considerable cost for small endothermic animals. Small animals have a relatively large surface to volume ratio resulting in high…
Balancing selection means that two alleles are maintained in the population because of natural selection. You would expect that one allele will provide higher fitness than the other,…
