what selective breeding can produce to benefit humans
Selective Convenance Definition
Selective breeding is the process by which humans control the breeding of organisms in order to exhibit or eliminate a particular characteristic. Selective breeding uses artificial selection to direct the genetic transfer of desirable traits. As opposed to natural selection, selective breeding focuses on traits which will benefit humans.
Selective Breeding Overview
The process involves identifying certain desirable features and finding two members of a species that showroom the particular feature. A series of matings or breedings is then performed between the individuals with favored features to produce offspring that exhibit the feature and that can be used for future matings. The desirable phenotypic traits are passed from parents to offspring via their genes.
Although selective breeding can increase the prevalence of desirable traits by increasing the frequency of favorable genes within the gene pool, undesirable traits, which can cause hereditary wellness problems, can besides increase as a consequence of inbreeding.
The term 'artificial selection' was first coined by Charles Darwin in his book On the Origin of Species to describe how humans had mirrored the process of natural selection through selective breeding. Darwin recognized that the forces irresolute population were similar, but instead of the organisms adapting to the surroundings bogus selection is driven past the needs of humans. Oftentimes, this leads to a decrease in fitness of the organisms because adaptive traits tin can be ignored.
Selective Breeding Examples
Dogs
All modern dogs have been selectively bred past humans over thousands of years. Dogs were commencement bred from a common ancestor of the gray wolf (Canis Lupus), which was domesticated by humans with whom it lived in close proximity. It is widely speculated that these animals were commencement domesticated past humans for hunting and protection, although mod dogs accept been bred for a variety of reasons, such equally companionship, performing particular tasks, entertainment, or for artful purposes. T oday in that location are over 400 breeds of dog, significant they take the widest phenotype range of whatever mammal.
The highly specific traits that are selectively bred into dogs can come at a huge disadvantage to their wellness. Not only tin the lack of genetic diversity inside the gene pool lead to hereditary health problems, dogs that are bred with deliberately accentuated physical features can suffer from their unnatural physical form. For example, bulldogs and other 'apartment-faced' breeds can suffer from breathing problems, while large dogs normally suffer from bone tumors due to their excess body weight.
Plants and Livestock
Almost all of the food consumed past modern humans has been selectively bred over thousands of years. Around 10,000 years ago when humans began living in permanent or semi-permanent settlements, they started to cultivate their own crops and herd flocks of livestock for the starting time time.
Selective breeding in plants started the selection of fruits and vegetables for qualities such as big size and sweetness unconsciously; the seeds of plants with the desirable qualities would take been given the chance to germinate through human consumption and cultivated within their latrines (toilets). Over time, other favorable qualities, such as oil content, seedlessness, and fleshy texture were all altered, leaving many homo-cultivated fruit and vegetables unrecognizable against their wild counterparts. The same process occurred with domesticated animals such every bit sheep (bred for thicker wool), chickens (considerably larger than their wild ancestors), and cattle (bred for more muscle mass or increased milk yield).
Ane of the oldest and near widely documented examples of selective breeding for food is the choice of tall growing (for easier harvesting), disease resistant wheat, which yields big amounts of grain. Historically, smaller crops were removed from fields, allowing bees and other pollinators to pollinate but the crops with the most human-favored characteristics. Today, the breeding of wheat is a more scientific process; individuals with specific genes are identified and bred to create plants that take improved nutritional content, more intense flavors, and require less fertilizer or pesticide applications.
Culling
Alternative is a class of selective breeding. Rather than convenance two animals that brandish favorable traits, animals with undesirable traits (such equally aggressive behavior) are removed from a population. Alternative can exist performed either past killing the individual or by spaying/neutering in order to prevent reproduction. The animals which are left in the population continue to reproduce, whilst genes controlling for the undesirable traits are removed from the population.
Hunting
Selective convenance is not always benign to humans. Outside of biology, selective breeding is accidentally good. Poachers, who chase and kill rhinoceros and elephants for valuable rhino-horn and ivory, take in recent years acquired unintentional selection for animals with smaller horns and tusks. As the males with the largest horns are the nigh desirable to hunters, the genes that control for size are being quickly removed from the population.
Additionally, a factor mutation which results in elephants with no tusks at all is increasing within populations. With population numbers greatly reduced due to hunting pressure, it is possible that elephant tusks could disappear entirely. This is an case of the issue that pressures of modern human populations have on wildlife.
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Source: https://biologydictionary.net/selective-breeding/
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