dioecy
Sign in to saveDioecy (; 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-fe
Article
10 sectionsContents
- In zoology
- In botany
- Evolution of dioecy
- From monoecy
- From hermaphroditism
- In mycology
- Adaptive benefit
- See also
- References
- Bibliography
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== thumb|Physalia physalis, Portuguese man o' war, is a dioecious colonial marine animal; the reproductive medusae within the colony are all of the same sex.