#140 Artificial selection
Humans use selective breeding (artificial selection) to improve features in ornamental plants, crop plants, domesticated animals and livestock. - selective pressure: humans - individuals with desirable features are chosen to interbreed = selective breeding - some of these desirable alleles are passed onto offspring - offspring with the most desirable features are chosen to interbreed - this is repeated over many generations Over many generations, alleles deemed desirable by the breeder increase in frequency, while the 'disadvantageous' ones may completely disappear over time. Dairy cattle - desirable features: docility, fast growth rates, high milk yield - cows with desirable features are chosen to interbreed, and so are their offspring. This is repeated over many generations. Bulls cannot be assessed for milk production as this is a sex-limited trait. Therefore, progeny testing is used: the performance of the bull's femail offpsirng is looked at to see whether or not t...
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