Biology › Section F · Meiosis and Mendelian heredity › Topic F.2
Sexual reproduction and life cycles
On paper, sex looks like a bad deal: it costs energy, requires a mate, and halves the population's growth rate. Yet nearly every eukaryote on Earth does it. The payoff is variation — offspring with new gene combinations — and the arms races of co-evolution make that payoff worth any price. This topic covers why sex wins, and the three life-cycle designs that weave meiosis and fertilization together.
In this topic
- The mechanics: halve, then fuse
- The paradox sex has to beat
- The Red Queen: running to stay in place
- Worked example: snails, parasites, and a natural experiment
- Three life cycles, one alternation
- Haploid-dominant: the fungal way
- Alternation of generations: plants run both
- Worked example: classifying three organisms
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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