A major advantage of sexual reproduction over asexual reproduction results in?

Answer 1

Reproducing asexually results in offspring that are exactly the same genetically as the parent. For example if a strawberry produces runners, the strawberries on the new plants will have the same type of fruit, with the same taste and size of seeds, as the parent. This is fine as long as the organism is not facing any particular difficulties and so has no need to adapt or change in any way.

In order to be more prepared for change, organisms share and mix their genes, and hence their characteristics, through sexual reproduction. Each organism has two copies of each gene, which may be slightly different to one another. A random choice of each of the two options for each gene goes into the egg or the sperm. When egg and sperm combine the offspring has a selectionof genes all its own. So it might have a better chance of success in life than its mother or father - or it may be worse off, it's just random. But overall the chance of change is good for the species as a whole. Darwin's law of the survival of the fittest means that the best offspring live and pass on good genes to their offspring in turn, and this leads to evolution.

Answer 2

since the offspring gets characteristics from both parents sexual reproduction gives the species a greater ability to adapt to its environment

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