The Biology of Reproduction

Reproduction is a fundamental feature of life, it is the way life persists across the ages. This book offers new, wider vistas on this fundamental biological phenomenon, exploring how it works through the whole tree of life. It explores facets such as asexual reproduction, parthenogenesis, sex determination and reproductive investment, with a taxonomic coverage extended over all the main groups - animals, plants including 'algae', fungi, protists and bacteria. It collates into one volume perspectives from varied disciplines - including zoology, botany, microbiology, genetics, cell biology, developmental biology, evolutionary biology, animal and plant physiology, and ethology - integrating information into a common language. Crucially, the book aims to identify the commonalties among reproductive phenomena, while demonstrating the diversity even amongst closely related taxa. Its integrated approach makes this a valuable reference book for students and researchers, as well as an effective entry point for deeper study on specific topics.

Preface; Figure credits; Introduction; 1. Introductory concepts; 2. Reproduction and life cycle; 3. The natural history of reproduction; 4. Parental investment; 5. Genetics and cytogenetics of reproduction; 6. Determination of sex and mating type; 7. Reproduction – a taxonomic survey; Coda; Appendix – a classification of living organisms; References; Index to taxa; Subject index.

Giuseppe Fusco is Associate Professor of Zoology at the Department of Biology at the Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy. He is a researcher in evolutionary biology and has edited three volumes in this field. He previously collaborated with Alessandro Minelli on Evolving Pathways (Cambridge, 2008).
Alessandro Minelli is a former Full Professor of Zoology and, in retirement, an affiliated senior scientist at the Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy. He has served as vice-president of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology and as specialty editor-in-chief for evolutionary developmental biology of Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. He is author of several books on evolutionary biology, including The Development of Animal Form (Cambridge, 2003) and Plant Evolutionary Developmental Biology (Cambridge, 2018).