Question

What are apomixis and amphimixis?

Answer 1

Apomixis is a type of asexual reproduction which occurs without fertilisation i.e. without the fusion of gametes and Amphimixis is sexual reproduction during which fusion of male and female gamete occurs. Amphimixis is synonymous to sexual reproduction while apomixis is asexual reproduction.

Complete answer:
Apomixis as asexual reproduction does not involve gamete fusion, so there is no meiosis occurring. Apomixis is when the mature egg cells produced through mitosis develop directly into embryos without undergoing prior fertilisation.
These embryos will be the cloned copy of their maternal parent genetics. One Example of apomixis is apomictic parthenogenesis which are fully cloned of their maternal parent.
Apomixis is seen more commonly in plants. In flowering plants, the cells of the gametophyte are capable of showing apomixis. And other forms of apomixis in plants include the replacement of seeds by a plantlet & the replacement of the flower by bulbils.
Whereas amphimixis is a type of sexual reproduction which simply involves fusion of gametes of male and female parents i.e. fusion of ovum and spermatozoa during fertilisation which results in formation of zygotes. Then the zygote will result in the development of offspring which are genetically distinct from their parental organisms. And it involves meiosis division.

Note:
Apomixis is asexual type of reproduction where fertilisation without fusion of gametes occur and no meiosis division happening, in fact egg cells are produced by mitosis divisions. Mitosis division contributes to being a fully cloned copy of the parent. Amphimixis is a synonym for sexual reproduction involving fusion of male and female gametes during fertilisation and involving meiosis which means the offspring will be genetically distinct from the parent organism.