Sexual system

A sexual system is a distribution of male and female functions across organisms in a species. The terms reproductive system and mating system have also been used as synonyms.

Sexual systems play a key role in genetic variation and reproductive success, and may also have led to the origin or extinction of certain species. In flowering plants and animals, sexual reproduction involves meiosis, an adaptive process for repairing damage in the germline DNA transmitted to progeny. The distinctions between different sexual systems is not always clear due to phenotypic plasticity.

Interest in sexual systems goes back to Charles Darwin, who found that barnacles include some species that are androdioecious and some that are dioecious.

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