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Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing organism produces male or female gametes. A male organism produces small mobile gametes, while a female organism produces larger, non-mobile gametes. An organism that produces both types of gamete is called a hermaphrodite. During sexual reproduction, a male and a female gamete fuse to form a zygote, which develops into an offspring that inherits traits from each parent.
A sex-determination system is a biological system that determines the development of sexual characteristics in an organism. Most organisms that create their offspring using sexual reproduction have two common sexes and a few less common intersex variations.
An aphrodisiac is a substance alleged to increase libido, sexual desire, sexual attraction, sexual pleasure, or sexual behavior. These substances range from a variety of plants, spices and foods to synthetic chemicals. Natural aphrodisiacs like cannabis or cocaine are classified into plant-based and non-plant-based substances. Synthetic aphrodisiacs include MDMA and methamphetamine. Aphrodisiacs can be classified by their type of effects. Aphrodisiacs that contain hallucinogenic properties like bufotenin have psychological effects on a person that can increase sexual desire and sexual pleasure. Aphrodisiacs that have smooth muscle relaxing properties like yohimbine have physiological effects on a person that can affect hormone levels and increase blood flow.
Tilapia is the common name for nearly a hundred species of cichlid fish from the coelotilapine, coptodonine, heterotilapine, oreochromine, pelmatolapiine, and tilapiine tribes, with the economically most important species placed in the Coptodonini and Oreochromini. Tilapia are mainly freshwater fish inhabiting shallow streams, ponds, rivers, and lakes, and less commonly found living in brackish water. Historically, they have been of major importance in artisanal fishing in Africa, and they are of increasing importance in aquaculture and aquaponics. Tilapia can become a problematic invasive species in new warm-water habitats such as Australia, whether deliberately or accidentally introduced, but generally not in temperate climates due to their inability to survive in cold water.
Sexual dimorphism is the condition where sexes of the same species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most dioecious species, which consist of most animals and some plants. Differences may include secondary sex characteristics, size, weight, color, markings, or behavioral or cognitive traits. Male-male reproductive competition has evolved a diverse array of sexually dimorphic traits. Aggressive utility traits such as "battle" teeth and blunt heads reinforced as battering rams are used as weapons in aggressive interactions between rivals. Passive displays such as ornamental feathering or song-calling have also evolved mainly through sexual selection. These differences may be subtle or exaggerated and may be subjected to sexual selection and natural selection. The opposite of dimorphism is monomorphism, when both biological sexes are phenotypically indistinguishable from each other.
The Garryales are a small order of dicotyledons, including only two families and three genera.
Garryaceae is a small family of plants known commonly as the silktassels. It contains two genera:
Eucommia ulmoides is a species of small tree native to China. It belongs to the monotypic family Eucommiaceae. It is considered vulnerable in the wild, but is widely cultivated in China for its bark and is highly valued in herbology such as traditional Chinese medicine.
In biology, gonochorism is a sexual system where there are only two sexes and each individual organism is either male or female. The term gonochorism is usually applied in animal species, the vast majority of which are gonochoric.
Sequential hermaphroditism is one of the two types of hermaphroditism, the other type being simultaneous hermaphroditism. It occurs when the organism's sex changes at some point in its life. In particular, a sequential hermaphrodite produces eggs and sperm at different stages in life. Sequential hermaphroditism occurs in many fish, gastropods, and plants. Species that can undergo these changes do so as a normal event within their reproductive cycle, usually cued by either social structure or the achievement of a certain age or size. In some species of fish, sequential hermaphroditism is much more common than simultaneous hermaphroditism.
Male is the sex of an organism that produces the gamete known as sperm, which fuses with the larger female gamete, or ovum, in the process of fertilisation. A male organism cannot reproduce sexually without access to at least one ovum from a female, but some organisms can reproduce both sexually and asexually. Most male mammals, including male humans, have a Y chromosome, which codes for the production of larger amounts of testosterone to develop male reproductive organs.
A sex chromosome (also referred to as an allosome, heterotypical chromosome, gonosome, heterochromosome, or idiochromosome is a chromosome that differs from an ordinary autosome in form, size, and behavior. The human sex chromosomes, a typical pair of mammal allosomes, carry the genes that determine the sex of an individual created in sexual reproduction. Autosomes differ from allosomes because autosomes appear in pairs whose members have the same form but differ from other pairs in a diploid cell, whereas members of an allosome pair may differ from one another and thereby determine sex.
A hermaphrodite is a sexually reproducing organism that produces both male and female gametes. Animal species in which individuals are of different sexes, either male or female but not both, are gonochoric, which is the opposite of hermaphroditic.
An organism's sex is female if it produces the ovum, the type of gamete that fuses with the male gamete during sexual reproduction.
Sexual reproduction is a type of reproduction that involves a complex life cycle in which a gamete with a single set of chromosomes combines with another gamete to produce a zygote that develops into an organism composed of cells with two sets of chromosomes (diploid). This is typical in animals, though the number of chromosome sets and how that number changes in sexual reproduction varies, especially among plants, fungi, and other eukaryotes.
Aucubin is an iridoid glycoside. Iridoids are commonly found in plants and function as defensive compounds. Iridoids decrease the growth rates of many generalist herbivores.
Deacetylasperulosidic acid is an iridoid compound found in a few medicinal plants, such as Morinda citrifolia. Some in vitro and in vivo bioactivities of deacetylasperulosidic acid include anti-inflammatory, analgesic, anti-cancer, antioxidant, anti-arthritic, anti-mutagenic, anti-clastogenic, and hepatoprotection.
Eucommia is a genus of small trees now native to China, with a fossil record that shows a much wider distribution. The single living species, Eucommia ulmoides, is near threatened in the wild, but is widely cultivated in China for its bark, and is highly valued in herbology such as traditional Chinese medicine.
Eucommia constans is an extinct species of flowering plant in the family Eucommiaceae. Eucommia is a genus of small trees now native to China, with a fossil record that shows a much wider distribution. E. constans is known from fossil fruits found in Miocene to Pleistocene deposits of east-central Mexico. E. constans is one of five described fossil species from North America assigned to the modern genus Eucommia. The other species are E. eocenica, E. jeffersonensis, E. montana, and E. rowlandii.
Hu Dujing was a Chinese plant physiologist, agronomist, and educator. He was a long-time professor at Hunan Agricultural University and co-founded the university's Department of Botany in 1951.
References
- ↑ Ong VY, Tan BK (January 2007). "Novel phytoandrogens and lipidic augmenters from Eucommia ulmoides". BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine. 7: 3. doi: 10.1186/1472-6882-7-3 . PMC 1797194 . PMID 17261169.
- ↑ Eisenman SW, Zaurov DE, Struwe L (2013). Medicinal plants of Central Asia Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan (1st ed.). New York, NY: Springer. p. 205. ISBN 978-1-4614-3912-7.
- ↑ Godwin J, Luckenbach JA, Borski RJ (2003). "Ecology meets endocrinology: environmental sex determination in fishes". Evolution & Development. 5 (1): 40–9. doi:10.1046/j.1525-142x.2003.03007.x. PMID 12492408. S2CID 22919234.