A small bud or gemma; in botany and zoology, a small asexual reproductive body that develops into a new organism.
From Latin gemma (gem, bud) plus the diminutive suffix -ule (little). This term is used across multiple biological disciplines for small reproductive structures.
Gemmules were once thought to be the universal carriers of heredity—Darwin himself proposed a wild theory called 'pangenesis' claiming that gemmules from every cell could transmit traits! Though he was wrong, the term stuck and is still used by biologists studying reproduction.
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