Selective Breeding

• Used to breed for plants and animals with desired characteristics
• Animals can be bred for:

  • Animals which produce more meat or milk
  • Crops with diseases resistance
  • Dogs with a good, gentle temperament
  • Decorative plants with big or unusual flowers
• Process of selective breeding

  • Select animals with desired characteristics
  • Breed them with eachother
  • Select the best offspring, and breed them together
  • Continue this process till the desired trait gets stronger
• The main drawback is the reduction in the gene pool
• It reduces the number of different alleles in a population, this is because the animals that are bred are all closely related. This is known as inbreeding
• Inbreeding can cause health problems as there’s a higher chance of organisms inheriting genetic defects
• This also there is a lower chance of any resistant alleles being present in the population