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Anisogamy

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Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior

Synonyms

Sexual reproduction

Definition

Anisogamy can be defined as a mode of sexual reproduction in which fusing gametes, formed by participating parents, are dissimilar in size.

Introduction

The most important event of an organism’s life is to pass on genes to the next generation. Some organisms choose asexual mode, while some prefer more costly process, i.e., sexual reproduction (Barnard 2004). The sexual reproduction is considered as one of the greatest paradoxes of evolution as it applies twofold costs to its practitioners and still prevails in population as a major form of reproduction. The twofold cost of sexual reproduction is (I) cost of meiosis and (II) “fertility cost” of sex (Smith 1978). Whenever female reproduces sexually, she throws away half of her genotype, which foist 50% cost of meiosis. This loss is fulfilled by benefits of sexual reproduction. But this one is considered as misbelief aroused due to our thinking in terms of individual selection (Treisman and Dawkins 1976...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi, India

    Rahul Kumar

  2. Department of Botany, University College of Science, Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Udaipur, India

    Mukesh Meena

  3. Metabolic Engineering, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi, India

    Prashant Swapnil

Authors
  1. Rahul Kumar
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  2. Mukesh Meena
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  3. Prashant Swapnil
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Mukesh Meena or Prashant Swapnil .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University , Rochester, MI, USA

    Jennifer Vonk

  2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University Department of Psychology, Rochester, MI, USA

    Todd Shackelford

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Kumar, R., Meena, M., Swapnil, P. (2019). Anisogamy. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_340-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_340-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-47829-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-47829-6

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