Selective breeding | Evolution | Biology | FuseSchool

Selective breeding is also known as artificial selection. It is the process by which humans breed plants and animals based on particular genetic characteristics.

We've been doing this for thousands of years – since we first created food crops from wild plants and began domesticating animals around 10,000 years ago. This is when we transitioned from hunter-gatherers to farmers. We no longer needed to wander around to gather food supplies.

Agriculture allowed fewer people to provide more food. Steady and predictable food production led to an increase in population and population density. People now had time to travel, trade and communicate. Colonies began to grow; the first villages and then towns were built near fields of domesticated plants. Civilization was founded on selective breeding!

How does selective breeding work? Parents with the desired characteristics are selected from a mixed population and are raised together. From the offspring, those with the desired characteristics are then also mated. This continues over several generations until all offspring exhibit the desired characteristic. The desired features we select may be chosen for their usefulness or appearance. We simply continue breeding, selecting and breeding again until we hit the desired jackpot.

When inbreeding with very closely genetically related parents, negative outcomes can occur. The offspring will all share very similar genes, which could make certain diseases more dangerous since all individuals would have the same weaknesses. The reduced gene pool also means they are more vulnerable because they are less likely to be able to adapt to environmental changes, such as climate change. There is also an increased risk of genetic disease caused by recessive genes. Being genetically very similar, if both parents carry the recessive gene for a genetic disease, such as cystic fibrosis, then the offspring will all inherit that disease.

We have been selectively breeding for thousands of years, getting closer to our desired goal with each generation of offspring. Today we have found a faster way to do this: genetic engineering. We can transplant genes for a desired trait directly into an organism.

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