Topic 6 Selective Breeding

Question 1

What is selective breeding

Answer 1

When humans artificially select the plants or animals that are going to breed so that the genes for particular characteristics remain in the population

Question 2

What features are useful and attractive

Answer 2

Produce more meat or milk
Crops that are disease resistant
Dogs with good, gentle temperament
Decorative plant with big or unusual flowers

Question 3

Process of selective breeding

Answer 3

1) select 2 organisms from your stock that have the characteristics you are looking for
2) breed them with each other
3) select the best of the offspring and breed them together
4)continue this process over several generations and eventually all offspring with have the characteristic

Question 4

In agriculture what can animals be selectively bred together to improve

Answer 4

Yields
E.g meat yields so that it produces a lot more meat

Question 5

What are problems with selective breeding

Answer 5

Reduces the gene pool - number of different alleles in a population. May result in inbreeding
Inbreeding can cause health problems because there is more chance of the organism inheriting harmful genetic defects when the gene pool is limited
As there is not much variation more susceptible to diseases