SELECTIVE BREEDING Meaning and
Definition
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Selective breeding, also known as artificial selection, refers to a deliberate and controlled process in which humans choose to mate organisms with desirable traits in order to produce offspring with those specific characteristics. This method is often practiced in agriculture, animal husbandry, and horticulture to enhance desired traits, improve productivity, and create new varieties or breeds.
The process of selective breeding involves carefully selecting and pairing individuals that possess the desired traits, such as increased size, improved resistance to diseases, specific coat colors, or favorable growth rates. By favoring certain individuals for reproduction, their advantageous traits are more likely to be passed on to the next generation. This inheriting of desirable traits over successive generations gradually alters the genetic makeup of a population, leading to the development of offspring with the desired features.
Selective breeding relies on two fundamental principles: heredity and variation. Heredity ensures that the offspring inherit genetic traits from their parents, and variation provides the necessary genetic diversity for improvement through selecting the most favorable traits. With each generation, breeders choose individuals that exhibit the desired characteristics even more prominently, leading to a refinement of the desired traits over time.
Selective breeding has played a crucial role in the domestication of plants and animals, shaping the agricultural and livestock industries as we know them today. This method has allowed humans to enhance crops with increased yields, animals with improved meat quality or milk production, and even produce pets with unique physical or temperamental traits. By harnessing this process, we can actively direct and expedite the genetic selection process, resulting in more efficient and desirable outcomes.
Common Misspellings for SELECTIVE BREEDING
- aelective breeding
- zelective breeding
- xelective breeding
- delective breeding
- eelective breeding
- welective breeding
- swlective breeding
- sslective breeding
- sdlective breeding
- srlective breeding
- s4lective breeding
- s3lective breeding
- sekective breeding
- sepective breeding
- seoective breeding
- selwctive breeding
- selsctive breeding
- seldctive breeding
- selrctive breeding
- sel4ctive breeding
Etymology of SELECTIVE BREEDING
The word "selective breeding" is derived from the combination of two terms: "selective" and "breeding".
The term "selective" originates from the Latin word "selectus", the past participle of "seligere", which means "to choose, to select". It entered Middle English in the 15th century. The concept of selectivity is related to the act of choosing or picking particular individuals or elements based on desired qualities or traits.
The term "breeding" is derived from the Old English word "brēdan", meaning "to bring forth, produce, multiply". It can also be traced back to the Proto-Germanic word "bredaną" and the Proto-Indo-European root "bʰrēd-", both of which also refer to the idea of bringing forth offspring.
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