2. Four main methods of asexual
reproduction are:
1. BINARY FISSION e.g. Amoeba

3. Four main methods of asexual
reproduction are:
2. SPORE FORMATION e.g. fungi
Spores : Mucor
(a pin-mould fungus)

4. Four main methods of asexual
reproduction are:
3. BUDDING e.g. yeast

5. Four main methods of asexual
reproduction are:
4. VEGETATIVE PROPAGATION
 is asexual reproduction in flowering
plants

7. Vegetative propagation can be:
 Natural
 bulbs, runners and tubers (have buds which
grow into a new plant)
 Artificial
 tissue culture
 cuttings

8. Natural Vegetative propagation:
Bulbs
Narcissus bulbs
Onion: a bulb

9. Natural Vegetative propagation:
Runners
Runners in
strawberries

10. Natural Vegetative propagation:
Tubers
‘eye’ is a bud
and is sprouting

11. Artificial Vegetative
propagation is by means of:
 cuttings

12. Artificial Vegetative
propagation is by means of:
 tissue culture
 means growing tissues on their own

13. Tissue culture is also called:
 micro-propagation
 is the growing of small plants from
pieces of tissue using sterile laboratory
techniques
 produces clones

14. Explain why the
nutrient medium must
be sterile.
Microbes do not infect
the cells.
Name two nutrients
that must be present
in the
medium, besides
water.
Sugar

15. Small masses of cells
form new plantlets.
Name the type of cell
division that is involved in
tissue culture.
Mitosi

16. When choosing the parent plant to
propagate the new individuals from it:
1. Check that it has the particular features you
want e.g.
 the right sort of flowers or fruit,
 resistance to disease / fire / drought
 grows fast

17. When choosing the parent plant to
propagate the new individuals from it:
2. It should be:
 genetically strong and healthy
 must not contain harmful genes
3. It should be free from disease and not
contain any harmful microbes or viruses

28. Advantages of vegetative
propagation:
1. It is a very sure way of producing new plants
2. It does not depend on pollination and seed
dispersal
3. There is no need for a dormant period
4. There are large food reserves for the new
plants to feed on when they start
developing
5. Plants produced are genetically identical, i.e.
CLONES and so all show the desired feature

29. Question: [MAY, 2006 IIA]
Plant tissue culture (or micro propagation)
involves cloning plants. Plant tissue culture is a
form of vegetative propagation and has many
advantages over the more traditional methods
such as cuttings. List TWO advantages of plant
tissue culturing. (2)

30. Disadvantages of vegetative
propagation:
1. The quality of the plants cannot be
improved
2. The offspring show no variation, meaning
that after many generations, diseases will
show up
3. The plants may be overcrowded as they
have not been dispersed as seeds do

31. Question: [SEP, 2005]
Plant tissue culture or micropropagation
involves cloning plants.
a) What do cloned plants have in common?
(2)
The same DNA and so the same
characteristics.

32. Question: [SEP, 2005]
b) Clones are taken from stock plants that have
desirable good qualities. Name TWO such
good desirable characteristics? (4)
- Resistance to disease
- Resistance to fire
- Plants grow fast
- Large fruit/Flowers

33. Question: MAY, 2009
Describe each of the following processes and explain
the benefits of each.
Vegetative propagation in plants (4)
 this is a form of asexual reproduction in plants that
takes place naturally by the formation of runners and
stem tubers or artificially by cuttings/tissue culture.
2 marks
 By this method a large number of plants is produced
in a relatively short time, and there is no need of
external agents for pollination or dispersal or
complex germination process; good plant qualities
are retained; only one parent is required. 2 marks

36. ‘Dolly’ became the most famous sheep in history.
Since 1996 cloning of: horses, cows, rabbits mice, cats, a mule, a
dog and, even a camel.
1996 – 2003

37. Dolly died in 2003: respiratory disease but is on show
in an Edinburgh museum.

38. Cloned camel
In April 2009 Injaz, or ‘Achievement’ in English, became the world’s first ever cloned
camel. Injaz, a female one-humped camel, was born in Dubai on April 8, 2009 at the
city’s Camel Reproduction Centre . Injaz’s real mother was slaughtered for camel meat
in 2005, but scientists saved the DNA and injected it into an empty egg cell of Injaz’s
surrogate camel mother. With camel racing big business in Dubai the implications of
camel cloning are significant.

39. 5 cloned pigs
Pigs are extremely important as providers of organs for human transplants. On
March 5, 2000 five cloned piglets were born– Millie, Christa, Alexis, Carrell and
Dotcom. Since then science and technology have moved on and pigs are being
specifically engineered so that their tissues are not rejected by the human body.