selective breeding
Choosing desirable parents
Selective breeding is the practice of choosing which animals or plants reproduce based on desired traits—size, temperament, yield, appearance.
Over generations, this amplifies chosen characteristics: Selective breeding transformed wolves into pugs and Great Danes.
The method predates modern genetics by thousands of years, shaping virtually all domesticated species.
Compare with natural selection, where environment rather than human preference determines which traits persist.
- eugenicsControlled human reproduction theory
- geneticsScience of hereditary transmission
- survival of the fittestAdaptive advantage perpetuates species
- hybridizationMixing distinct genetic lines
- mutationPermanent DNA alteration
gene pool · hybrid vigor · best in show · pedigree · culling · domestication · landrace · heirloom varieties · animal husbandry · offspring · kennel · pick of the litter · lineage · champion · variation · heredity · Darwin · stud
- agriculturefarms, crops, farm, farmers, farming
- horseshorse, mare, mares, stallion, stallions
- animal husbandrysire, dam, stud, mare, stallion
- livestock sciencelivestock feed, dairy cattle, beef cattle, cattle ranching, dairy farming
- plant sciencebotany, plant anatomy, plant biology, plant science, horticulture
- Poultry Farmingducks, geese, duck eggs, goose eggs, duckling
selective breedingnatural selection
Differential reproductive success
selective breedingoutcrossing
Breeding unrelated same-species individuals
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