Why would the offspring resulting from fertilization have more differences than the offspring resulting from budding?
1 Answer
Sexual mating results in genetic mixing
Explanation:
When you reproduce by mating, usually, the mother and the father each contribute half a genome (haploid set of chromosomes) to create a diploid zygote. In this process the genes form the parents are mixed to form individuals with a combination of traits from the parents. (This has some variation between organisms, but for simplicity I'll stick to mammalian genes)
In asexual reproduction (budding, parthenogenesis, etc.), the genes from the parents to the offspring are identical. The offspring would therefor be "clones" of the parents and have less differences amongst them.
As an example, take a mother with very dark skin and the a father with very light skin. The mother produces a lot of melanin, the father very little. When they have a child, the combination of a lot of melanin and few melanin would create a "tanned" colour.
It gets complicated when you consider genetic linkage, genetic dominance, and allelic assortment, but in short the offspring resulting from fertilisation would have more differences because of genetic mixing.
