<Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (March 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (March 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> Asexual reproduction is a type of reproduction by which offspring arise from a single organism, and inherit the genes of that parent only; it does not involve the fusion of gametes, and almost never changes the number of chromosomes . Asexual reproduction is the primary form of reproduction for single - celled organisms such as archaea and bacteria . Many plants and fungi sometimes reproduce asexually . </P> <P> While all prokaryotes reproduce without the formation and fusion of gametes, mechanisms for lateral gene transfer such as conjugation, transformation and transduction can be likened to sexual reproduction in the sense of genetic recombination in meiosis . A complete lack of sexual reproduction is relatively rare among multicellular organisms, particularly animals . It is not entirely understood why the ability to reproduce sexually is so common among them . Current hypotheses suggest that asexual reproduction may have short term benefits when rapid population growth is important or in stable environments, while sexual reproduction offers a net advantage by allowing more rapid generation of genetic diversity, allowing adaptation to changing environments . Developmental constraints may underlie why few animals have relinquished sexual reproduction completely in their life - cycles . Another constraint on switching from sexual to asexual reproduction would be the concomitant loss of meiosis and the protective recombinational repair of DNA damage afforded as one function of meiosis . </P>

Asexual reproduction is used by organisms to produce