|
|
Article: Alternation of Generations
- Article from:
- Biology
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Alternation of Generations
For sexually reproducing multicellular organisms such as plants and animals, the life cycle requires that
diploid
cells divide by
meiosis
to create
haploid
cells. Haploid cells then fuse to recreate the diploid number and a new organism. Alternation of generations refers to the occurrence in the plant life cycle of both a multicellular diploid organism and a multicellular haploid organism, each giving rise to the other. This is in contrast to animals, in which the only multicellular phase is the diploid organism (such as the human man or woman), whereas the haploid phase is a single egg or sperm cell.
Alternation of generations is easiest to ...