Recap:
Jimmy Hopkins (yes, that's his name) is a extremely weird organism. For one thing he is extremely large, but on the other hand, he is extremely weird, because of one thing- He is an unicellular organism
You heard it right. JH is just nothing but a giant unicellular organism about 50m across and 30m tall, resembling a giant bacterium. JH has a extremely hard capsule made of cellulose and lignin, to protect it from abrasions and dents. Inside JH is a collection of thousands of chloroplasts to produce food. JH's mitochondria are really nothing more than a bunch of oversized mitochondria that produce a lot of energy. Since JH is so massive, it would die if it were to exist on land, so it simply swims in the ocean. JH has multiple flagella that are about twice as long as the host organism itself, which help it to propel through at high speeds through the water. In short, JH is basically an upscaled version of an cyanobacteria, except with chloroplasts and a proper nucleus. JH is rod shaped.
So Jimmy Hopkins has now found a way to propel itself (the fuel is for your imaginationツ) in times of emergency, and is now safe from its predators. However, JH now has to contend with another huge problem-Reproduction
JH is a unicellular organism, so it cannot reproduce sexually, and has to therefore reproduce asexually.
However there are a few problems with reproduction:
- As JH is an extremely huge organism, its cell wall and capsule, despite being transparent would be over a few cm thick, to protect from abrasions, infections and dent. However, this capsule being made of cellulose and lignin, would be extremely brittle. JH trying to split apart by fission is like trying to perfectly split an egg. If done improperly, then JH will die catastrophically, as the cell wall and capsule rupture. This also risks the ignition of the "emergency fuel" it uses to escape predators, thus exploding and destroying JH.
- Even if fission was done properly, there would be a chance, that one "child-cell" would end up with the flagella, while the other would end up with no flagella, risking predation
- JH cannot bud like Hydra, as you cannot have a bunch of flagella growing on the "child-cell" as the cell's back is attached to the parent during maturation.
This means that JH's species would go extinct if it did not reproduce. So, JH has to look for an alternative way of reproduction
The question is:
What type of reproduction would JH use to create offspring (without dying or ending up with deformities)?