Selective Breeding

• Selective breeding is the process of taking the best plants or animals from a population and breeding them together in the hope of getting even better offspring next time.
• Humans have been using selective breeding for thousands of years since the beginning of agriculture.
• Selective breeding is used to produce cows that produce large amounts of meat or milk, crops that are resistant to diseases, friendly cats and dogs, and plants with large or unusual flowers.
• In selective breeding, the best individuals from the existing stock are selected and bred together to give us the next generation.
• Selective breeding reduces the gene pool of the population as it selects for certain alleles that code for the traits that are wanted.
• Over time, the best individuals in a selective breeding population are often closely related, which can lead to inbreeding, making the offspring particularly prone to diseases and inherited defects.
• Dogs like german shepherds and rottweilers are prone to health conditions due to their small gene pool.
• A small gene pool in a selective breeding population means there's less variation within the population, making it more susceptible to diseases.
• If a new pathogen were to arrive in a tomato plant population, it could potentially affect all the plants, leading to the farmer losing his entire crop.