Loss of wild varieties: the impact on the gene pool

• Most modern food crops and breeds originated through the selective breeding of wild plants and animals
• This process improved crops, accelerated growth and made livestock and crops more resistant to diseases and changing climatic conditions
• Selective breeding involves inbreeding organisms with the genes for desirable characteristics.
• Today scientists create many new varieties through genetic engineering
• Both selective breeding and genetic engineering reduce the gene pool of a species
• Reduction of the gene pool is reducing the variety of genes by eliminating genes that carry undesirable traits
• In the long term, however, a smaller gene pool leads to a weakening of the species because the organisms may be more susceptible to disease and no longer have the ability to adapt to changing environmental conditions.
• Weakening of a species can result in crop failure and the loss of livestock, which could threaten food security
• Agricultural scientists and genetic manipulators need a good source of genetic diversity to improve varieties
• Existing wild plant species are needed, from which current crop lines can be derived and future crop lines can be developed
• Wild plant and animal species are destroyed by habitat destruction and climate change
• Storing the seed or sperm of wild varieties in seed and sperm banks could assist in retaining genes so that they are not permanently lost.