Q.The unicellular organisms which reproduce by binary fission are considered immortal. Justify.
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Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →Step 1. In a multicellular animal, 'death' applies to the whole individual body once its systems fail with age - reproduction produces separate offspring while the parent's own body eventually ages and dies independently of them.
Step 2. In a unicellular organism reproducing by binary fission, however, there is no such separation: the entire parent cell itself divides into two complete daughter cells, so the parent does not remain behind as a separate, ageing body once reproduction is over.
Step 3. Because the original cell's substance is fully distributed into the two daughter cells rather than one of them 'dying' while producing the other, there is no true parental corpse left at any point in the lineage - each generation simply becomes the next. …
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