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Sexual System
A sexual system is a distribution of male and female functions across organisms in a species. The terms reproductive system and mating system have also been used as synonyms. Sexual systems play a key role in genetic variation and reproductive success, and may also have led to the origin or extinction of certain species. In flowering plants and animals, sexual reproduction involves meiosis, an adaptive process for repairing damage in the germline DNA transmitted to progeny. The distinctions between different sexual systems is not always clear due to phenotypic plasticity. Interest in sexual systems goes back to Charles Darwin, who found that barnacles include some species that are androdioecious and some that are dioecious. Types of sexual systems Flowering plants may have dimorphic or monomorphic sexual systems. In monomorphic sexual systems, a combination of hermaphrodite, male, and/or female flowers may be present on the same plant. Monomorphic sexual systems inclu ...
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Tide Pool Acorn Barnacles, Oregon
Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravity, gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables can be used for any given locale to find the predicted times and amplitude (or "tidal range"). The predictions are influenced by many factors including the alignment of the Sun and Moon, the #Phase and amplitude, phase and amplitude of the tide (pattern of tides in the deep ocean), the amphidromic systems of the oceans, and the shape of the coastline and near-shore bathymetry (see ''#Timing, Timing''). They are however only predictions, the actual time and height of the tide is affected by wind and atmospheric pressure. Many shorelines experience semi-diurnal tides—two nearly equal high and low tides each day. Other locations have a diurnal cycle, diurnal tide—one high and low tide each day. A "mixed tide"—two uneven magnitude ...
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Hermaphrodite
A hermaphrodite () is a sexually reproducing organism that produces both male and female gametes. Animal species in which individuals are either male or female are gonochoric, which is the opposite of hermaphroditic. The individuals of many taxonomic groups of animals, primarily invertebrates, are hermaphrodites, capable of producing viable gametes of both sexes. In the great majority of tunicates, mollusks, and earthworms, hermaphroditism is a normal condition, enabling a form of sexual reproduction in which either partner can act as the female or male. Hermaphroditism is also found in some fish species, but is rare in other vertebrate groups. Most hermaphroditic species exhibit some degree of self-fertilization. The distribution of self-fertilization rates among animals is similar to that of plants, suggesting that similar pressures are operating to direct the evolution of selfing in animals and plants. A rough estimate of the number of hermaphroditic animal species ...
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Dichogamy
Sequential hermaphroditism (called dichogamy in botany) is one of the two types of hermaphroditism, the other type being simultaneous hermaphroditism. It occurs when the organism's sex changes at some point in its life. A sequential hermaphrodite produces eggs (female gametes) and sperm (male gametes) at different stages in life. Sequential hermaphroditism occurs in many fish, gastropods, and plants. Species that can undergo these changes do so as a normal event within their reproductive cycle, usually cued by either social structure or the achievement of a certain age or size. In animals, the different types of change are male to female (protandry or protandrous hermaphroditism), female to male (protogyny or protogynous hermaphroditism), and bidirectional (serial or bidirectional hermaphroditism). Both protogynous and protandrous hermaphroditism allow the organism to switch between functional male and functional female. Bidirectional hermaphrodites have the capacity for sex chan ...
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Andromonoecy
Andromonoecy is a breeding system of plant species in which male and hermaphrodite flowers are on the same plant. It is a monomorphic sexual system comparable with monoecy, gynomonoecy and trimonoecy. Andromonoecy is frequent among genera with zygomorphic flowers, however it is overall rare and occurs in less than 2% of plant species. Nonetheless the breeding system has gained interest among biologists in the study of sex expression. Etymology The word andromonoecious is a combination of andr- (meaning male) and monoecious and was first used in 1877. Prevalence Andromonoecy is uncommon and has been estimated to occur in less than 2% of plant species. In angiosperms, it occurs in 1.7% of angiosperms making up around 4000 species in 33 families. It is common in the grass subfamily Panicoideae. Andromonoecious species * ''Cucumis melo'' subsp * ''Cucumis melo'' * '' Chaerophyllum bulbosum'' * '' Erophaca baetica'' * '' Silene tibetica'' ''Solanum'' * '' Solanum agnewioru ...
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Pistil
Gynoecium (; ; : gynoecia) is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl (botany), whorl of a flower; it consists of (one or more) ''#Pistil, pistils'' and is typically surrounded by the pollen-producing plant reproductive morphology, reproductive organs, the stamens, collectively called the androecium. The gynoecium is often referred to as the "female" portion of the flower, although rather than directly producing female gametes (i.e. egg cells), the gynoecium produces megaspores, each of which develops into a female gametophyte which then produces egg cells. The term gynoecium is also used by botanists to refer to a cluster of archegonia and any associated modified leaves or stems present on a gametophyte shoot in mosses, Marchantiophyta, liverworts, and hornworts. The corresponding terms for the male parts of those plants are clusters of antheridiu ...
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Stamen
The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filament and an anther which contains sporangium, microsporangia. Most commonly, anthers are two-lobed (each lobe is termed a locule) and are attached to the filament either at the base or in the middle area of the anther. The sterile (i.e. nonreproductive) tissue between the lobes is called the Connective (botany), connective, an extension of the filament containing conducting strands. It can be seen as an extension on the dorsal side of the anther. A pollen grain develops from a microspore in the microsporangium and contains the male gametophyte. The size of anthers differs greatly, from a tiny fraction of a millimeter in ''Wolfia'' spp up to five inches (13 centimeters) in ''Canna iridiflora'' and ''Strelitzia nicolai''. The stamens in a flower ...
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Trioecy
Trioecy , also spelled triecy, is a sexual system characterized by the coexistence of males, females, and hermaphrodites. It has been found in both plants and animals. Like androdioecy and gynodioecy, trioecy is a mixed mating systems. Terminology Trioecy is also called tridioecy and subdioecy . The term trioecy comes from the Neo-Latin word '' Trioecia'', a former order of trioecious plants. Evolution of trioecy Trioecy may be an unstable transient state associated with evolutionary transitioning from gynodioecy to dioecy. In brachiopod species, trioecy usually breaks into androdioecy or gynodioecy. Other studies show that trioecious populations originated from gonochoristic ancestors which were invaded by a mutant selfing hermaphrodite, creating a trioecious population. It has been suggested that chromosomal duplication plays an important part in the evolution of trioecy. But one study found that trioecy can be stable under nucleocytoplasmic sex determination. ...
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Androdioecy
Androdioecy is a reproductive system characterized by the coexistence of males and hermaphrodites. Androdioecy is rare in comparison with the other major reproductive systems: dioecy, gynodioecy and hermaphroditism. In animals, androdioecy has been considered a stepping stone in the transition from dioecy to hermaphroditism, and vice versa. Androdioecy, trioecy and gynodioecy are sometimes referred to as a mixed mating systems. Androdioecy is a dimorphic sexual system in plants comparable with gynodioecy and dioecy. Evolution of androdioecy The fitness requirements for androdioecy to arise and sustain itself are theoretically so improbable that it was long considered that such systems do not exist. Particularly, males and hermaphrodites have to have the same fitness, in other words produce the same number of offspring, in order to be maintained. However, males only have offspring by fertilizing eggs or ovules of hermaphrodites, while hermaphrodites have offspring both th ...
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Gynodioecy
Gynodioecy is a rare breeding system that is found in certain flowering plant species in which female and hermaphroditic plants coexist within a population. Gynodioecy is the evolutionary intermediate between hermaphroditism (exhibiting both female and male parts) and dioecy (having two distinct morphs: male and female). Gynodioecy is sometimes considered a mixed mating system comparable with trioecy and androdioecy. It is also considered a dimorphic sexual system alongside dioecy and androdioecy. Gynodioecy occurs as a result of transmission of nuclear (nuclear male sterility) or, more commonly, extra-nuclear (e.g. cytoplasmic male sterility) mutated alleles, which prevents pollen production, while keeping the female reproductive parts intact; other members of the species population don't inherit the mutated alleles, thus remaining hermaphrodites. In some cases, a combination of both nuclear and extra-nuclear mechanisms is observed in determining the sterile phenotype ...
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Dioecy
Dioecy ( ; ; adj. dioecious, ) is a characteristic of certain species that have distinct unisexual individuals, each producing either male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproduction is biparental reproduction. Dioecy has costs, since only the female part of the population directly produces offspring. It is one method for excluding self-fertilization and promoting allogamy (outcrossing), and thus tends to reduce the expression of recessive deleterious mutations present in a population. Plants have several other methods of preventing self-fertilization including, for example, dichogamy, herkogamy, and self-incompatibility. In zoology In zoology, dioecy means that an animal is either male or female, in which case the synonym gonochory is more often used. Most animal species are gonochoric, almost all vertebrate species are gonochoric, and all bird and mammal species are gonochoric. Dioecy may also describe colonies ...
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Trimonoecy
Trimonoecy, also called polygamomonoecy, is when male, female, and hermaphrodite flowers are on the same plant. Trimonoecy is rare. It is a monomorphic sexual system along with monoecy, gynomonoecy, and andromonoecy. It is hypothesized that trimonoecy originated from gynomonoecy. Occurrence Trimonoecy occurs in plant families like Anacardiaceae, Apiaceae, Araliaceae, Chenopodiaceae, Fabaceae, Orchidaceae, Palmae, and more. It is rare in the family Commelinaceae. Trimonoecious species include: * ''Cocos nucifera'' *''Sanguisorba minor'' *''Thymelaea hirsuta'' *There is evidence ''Phyllanthus acidus ''Phyllanthus acidus'', known as the Otaheite gooseberry, Malay gooseberry, Tahitian gooseberry, country gooseberry, star gooseberry, starberry, arbari, West India gooseberry, Grosella, or simply gooseberry tree, is one of the trees with small e ...'' is trimonoecious. References Plant reproductive system Sexual system {{botany-stub ...
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Andromonoecy
Andromonoecy is a breeding system of plant species in which male and hermaphrodite flowers are on the same plant. It is a monomorphic sexual system comparable with monoecy, gynomonoecy and trimonoecy. Andromonoecy is frequent among genera with zygomorphic flowers, however it is overall rare and occurs in less than 2% of plant species. Nonetheless the breeding system has gained interest among biologists in the study of sex expression. Etymology The word andromonoecious is a combination of andr- (meaning male) and monoecious and was first used in 1877. Prevalence Andromonoecy is uncommon and has been estimated to occur in less than 2% of plant species. In angiosperms, it occurs in 1.7% of angiosperms making up around 4000 species in 33 families. It is common in the grass subfamily Panicoideae. Andromonoecious species * ''Cucumis melo'' subsp * ''Cucumis melo'' * '' Chaerophyllum bulbosum'' * '' Erophaca baetica'' * '' Silene tibetica'' ''Solanum'' * '' Solanum agnewioru ...
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