Question

Describe the process of budding in Hydra.

Answer 1

Hint: Budding is a form of asexual reproduction in which a novel organism originates from an outgrowth or bud due to cell division at one specific site. The minor bulb-like projection impending out from the yeast cell is called a bud.

Complete answer: Hydra use the help of regenerative cells for reproduction and it gives rise to a new individual by the process of budding. In hydra, a tiny bud develops as an outgrowth due to continuous cell division at one particular site. These buds later develop into tiny individuals and, when they fully mature, detach from the parent body and grow as a new independent individual. Steps involved in the budding of hydra are:
i. A tiny bulb-like structure arises from the parent hydra, the bud grows to a certain size by mitotic division and forms multicellular from a single cell bud.
ii. The bud further continues to grow to form a tiny hydra.
iii. The newly formed bud detaches from the parent hydra and falls on the ground and grows as a separate individual.

Additional information: The process of the asexual mode of reproduction in which the parent organism divides into two or more daughter cells is termed as fission, if a parent organism splits into two daughter cells it is termed as binary fission. The reproduction in Amoeba is through binary fission, in which the parent nuclei of the amoeba split into two daughters by the division of the cytoplasm.

Note: As in budding in Hydra, the reproduction is asexual, the newly formed organism is a clone, and is genetically and morphologically identical to the parent organism excepting few mutations. As the process is based on mitotic division and the newly formed hydra develops from a single parent, the reproduction is termed as asexual.