Topic 6 - Selective Breeding

Question 1

Give the steps for selective breeding

Answer 1

1) From your existing stock, select organisms that have the characteristics you are after
2) Breed them together
3) Select the best of the offspring and breed them together
4) Continue over several generations and desired traits will get stronger and stronger till all offspring have them

Question 2

What is selective breeding?

Answer 2

It is when humans artificially select plants or animals to breed so that genes for particular characteristics remain in the population

Question 3

What is an organism’s gene pool?

Answer 3

The number of different alleles in a population

Question 4

Why can interbreeding cause genetic problems

Answer 4

. This can cause health problem as there is a greater chance of the organisms inheriting harmful genetic defects when the gene pool is limited.

Question 5

Why can interbreeding lead to problems if a new disease appears

Answer 5

There can also be serious problems if a new disease appears, since there is not much variation in the population, all stock are closely related if one gets killed by a new disease the others are likely to too

Question 6

What is interbreeding?

Answer 6

The farmer keeps breeding the closely related animals or plants (interbreeding)