Selective Breeding

• Which of these is a characteristic that humans have selectively bred for?

  Horses that can run faster
• Which of the following characteristics do humans selectively breed for in plants?

  • Increased yield 
  • Better taste
• What type of variation can be passed on to the next generation?

  Genetic variation only
• What effect does selective breeding usually have on variation within a population?

  It decreases variation 
• What is the term used to describe all the genes and their alleles found in a population?

  Gene pool
• What is the term used to describe the breeding together of closely related individuals?

  Inbreeding 
• What are the drawbacks of inbreeding?

  • The population as a whole will be more at risk of disease 
  • It reduces that size of the gene pool 
  • Rare inherited diseases are more likely to appear
• Describe how the process of selective breeding could be used to increase milk production in a population of cows. 

  • The cows that produce the most milk are selected and bred together
  • This process is then repeated with the offspring of those cows
  • And again for multiple more generations