Asexual reproduction allows organisms to reproduce without sex by making copies of themselves through mitosis or fission. Mitosis is cell division that produces identical offspring in organisms like potatoes that sprout new plants. Fission produces new identical organisms by splitting a single parent into two, seen in organisms without nuclei. Budding and regeneration are also forms of asexual reproduction where parts of the parent organism grow into new identical individuals, such as how hydra and starfish reproduce. Sexual reproduction requires the joining of male and female sex cells through fertilization to produce offspring with a unique combination of parents' genes. Meiosis produces haploid sex cells with half the number of chromosomes as body cells to allow for the mixing of genetic material between parents.