What does 'selective breeding' involve?

Selective breeding involves choosing specific organisms for reproduction based on desired traits. This practice is utilized in agriculture, horticulture, and animal husbandry to enhance desirable characteristics in offspring. By selecting parents that exhibit specific traits—such as size, color, yield, or disease resistance—breeders aim to increase the frequency of these traits in future generations. Over time, this method can lead to significant improvements in the traits of a species, resulting in better agricultural outputs or enhanced quality in livestock, for instance.

This is distinct from randomly mating organisms, which does not guarantee the regular expression of the desired traits. Also, introducing mutations or using genetic engineering involves more direct manipulation of an organism’s DNA, with approaches that differ significantly from the traditional method of selective breeding, which relies on the natural reproductive processes to achieve desired outcomes.