Question

'Reproduction is not a defining property of growth'. Justify with reason.

Answer 1

Growth and reproduction can be clubbed together for unicellular organisms but not for multicellular organisms because multicellular organisms increased in the number of cells in the body of organisms can not be considered as reproduction.

Complete answer:
Reproduction is the ability to produce younger ones that can grow. Reproduction can be considered as the defining property of growth in the unicellular organisms because here the increase in the number of cells is considered as growth as well as reproduction. But in a multicellular organism, it cannot be considered as a defining property of growth of the living organism because growth is an invertible increase in the number of cells or the mass of the living organism. This increase in number does not imply reproduction. Hence growth cannot be taken as a defining property of reproduction in living organisms. Though it is the characteristics of the living organisms it generates the material for reproduction.
For example, a mule is a cross of a female horse and a male donkey, so it cannot produce fertile offspring though they can grow.
There are many organisms on the earth, which never reproduce in their life, although they bear all other characteristics of growing living things in them, e.g., Sterile worker bees, mules, infertile human couples, etc. Therefore, reproduction cannot be an all-inclusive defining property of growth of the living things.

Note: -Growth has to do with organisms adapting to new changes in their physiology, such as a child growing into an adult.
-Growth is essential as it enables the living things to attain a maximum size that can enable them to perform their functions and roles whereas Reproduction is the process of producing new individuals of the same kind.