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4 Things to Know About Selective Breeding

VWB Blog 2 years ago 0

Humans have tried to use science to produce desirable offspring for years. Many people are aware of Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection and that animals adapt to their environment to become more likely to survive. However, Gregor Mendel led an experiment that was just as important, which involved studying the traits that are passed down to offspring.

This idea was the foundation that led to selective breeding, which can produce many different benefits. Keep reading for the four things you should know about artificial selection.

1. What Is Selective Breeding?

Selective breeding is when a breeder chooses parents with phenotypic traits to reproduce. This will yield offspring with desired traits that you are going for in whatever field. It can be used to produce yummy fruits and vegetables, larger animals, crops resistant to pests, or big eyes on your puppy.

2. Disadvantages

These breeding methods helped develop many of the plants and animals that we enjoy today. Even so, they do have some disadvantages. The case of inbreeding is the biggest disadvantage when it comes to dog breeding.

When closely related organisms reproduce, they can have undesirable traits if the parents have recessive genes. If you are breeding animals, keep in mind purebred dogs can have shorter life spans and have health defects due to inbreeding. Misbar Clownfish are a good example of how to breed animals without using aggressive techniques.

3. Breeding Crops

Breeding methods are present in more than just animals but crops too. It can help develop higher yields that survive disease and produce more harvest in a quicker time span. Selective breeding has even given more options to be able to grow food on lands that were not suitable for farming because of poor fertility.

These sciences can help people all over the world with food instability and hunger.

4. Types of Breeding

There are different ways that breeders can produce the desired outcome. Some techniques work better depending on what you are looking for. There are three main different methods of selective breeding.

Linebreeding

This is when animals or plants are related closely so that you can find desirable traits. The idea is that if you mate an animal that is related, you will find the qualities you want.

Outcrossing

This is the breeding of two plants or animals that are not related to their pedigree. This involves new traits that might be missing in the other forms of breeding. This can also help in cases of inbreeding because you reduce the number of undesirable genes.

Self-Pollination

Occurring in plants, self-pollination is when species transfer pollen to produce offspring. The offspring is not identical to its parents because genes shuffle during reproduction, but they can become identical after multiple generations.

Find Out More About Selective Breeding

After reading this article, you should know more about what selective breeding looks like. While it comes with some disadvantages, it definitely produces results for breeders looking for a specific outcome.

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