cross-fertilization, the fusion of male and female gametes (sex cells) from different individuals of the same species. Cross-fertilization must occur in dioecious plants (those having male and female organs on separate individuals) and in all animal species in which there are separate male and female individuals. Even among hermaphrodites—i.e., those organisms in which the same individual produces both sperm and eggs—many species possess well-developed mechanisms that ensure cross-fertilization. Moreover, many of the hermaphroditic species that are capable of self-fertilization (q.v.) also have capabilities for cross-fertilization.
There are a number of ways in which the sex cells of two separate individuals can be brought together. In lower plants, such as mosses and liverworts, motile sperm are released from one individual and swim through a film of moisture to the egg-bearing structure of another individual. In higher plants, cross-fertilization is achieved via cross-pollination, when pollen grains (which give rise to sperm) are transferred from the cones or flowers of one plant to egg-bearing cones or flowers of another. Cross-pollination may occur by wind, as in conifers, or via symbiotic relationships with various animals (e.g., bees and certain birds and bats) that carry pollen from plant to plant while feeding on nectar.
Methods of cross-fertilization are equally diverse in animals. Among most species that breed in aquatic habitats, the males and females each shed their sex cells into the water and external fertilization takes place. Among terrestrial breeders, however, fertilization is internal, with the sperm being introduced into the body of the female. Internal fertilization also occurs among some fishes and other aquatic breeders.
By recombining genetic material from two parents, cross-fertilization helps maintain a greater range of variability for natural selection to act upon, thereby increasing a species’s capacity to adapt to environmental change.