Selective Breeding

Question 1

What is selective breeding/artificial selection?

Answer 1

To select individuals with desirable characteristics and breed them together

Question 2

Why might humans selectively breed plants?

Answer 2

-Disease resistance in crops
-Increased crop yield
-Hardiness to weather conditions
-Better tasting fruits
-Larger or unusual flowers

Question 3

What are the problems of selective breeding?

Answer 3

-Could lead to inbreeding
-This leads to a reduction in the gene pool, which reduces the number of alleles
-Organisms would therefore inherit harmful genetic defects

Question 4

Why might humans selectively breed animals?

Answer 4

-To get animals that produce more milk or meat
-Animals to lay larger eggs
-To get domestic dogs with better characteristics

Question 5

What are the features of Natural selection?

Answer 5

-Occurs naturally
-Develop populations with better features that are better adapted to their environment
-Usually takes a longer time to occur

Question 6

What are the features of Artificial selection?

Answer 6

-Only occurs when humans intervene
-Development of features that are useful to humans
-Not adapted for their environment or their survival
-Takes less time