Plant and Animal Breeding Flashcards
What has selective breeding been used to improve?
- higher food yields
- higher nutritional values
- pest and disease resistance
- thriving in particular environmental conditions
How can the quality of a variety or strain of plant be investigated?
Through plant field trials.
What is a cultivar?
A strain of plant.
How can selective breeding help sustainable food production?
Improve the characteristics.
What are plant field trials used to investigate?
- performance
- effect
What do you consider before doing a plant field trial?
- selection of treatments (only one can be used at a time)
- replicates (three minimum to improve the reliability of results)
- randomisation (eliminate bias)
What does selective breeding produce?
Plants that only have the desired alleles and characteristics.
Negative effects of inbreeding?
Inbreeding depression - less successful in surviving and reproducing. Expressed as a decline in vigour, size, fertility and yield.
What is genetic sequencing?
Process which allows scientists to determine the precise sequence of DNA nucleotides for a living organism.
