Abscission (from the
Latin ab, meaning
away, and
scindere, meaning
to cut) is the shedding of various parts of an organism, such as a
plant dropping a
leaf,
fruit,
flower, or
seed. In
zoology, abscission is the intentional shedding of a body part, such as the shedding of a
claw, husk, or the
autotomy of a tail to evade a predator. In
mycology, it is the liberation of a fungal
spore. In
cell biology, abscission refers to the separation of two daughter cells at the completion of
cytokinesis.