DO NOW

1. Define a species
2. A tiger and a lion are two different species. What
evidence would show that they are two different
species?
3. Define osmosis
4. Define variation
Lesson 20:
Selective Breeding 18/06/2023

DO NOW: FROM MEMORY – no notes allowed!

1. Define a species
2. A tiger and a lion are two different species. What
evidence would show that they are two different
species?
3. Define osmosis
4. Define variation
 DO NOW:

DO NOW answers 1. Define a species

2. A tiger and a lion are two different
species. What evidence would show that
they are two different species?
3. Define osmosis
4. Define variation
1. A species is a group of living organisms that can
reproduce to produce fertile offspring
2. A tiger and a lion reproduce and produce infertile
offspring (ligers). This means that they are two
different species
3. Movement of water molecules from a dilute
solution to a concentrated solution across a
partially permeable membrane
4. The differences in the characteristics of
individuals in a population of the same species
Selective Breeding
• Selective breeding is the process by which humans
breed plants and animals for particular
characteristics.
• Selective breeding can also be called artificial
selection
Examples of characteristics that humans
might choose during selective breeding
Food crops: Disease resistance, or wheat plants that
produce a lot of grain

Farm animals: Having lots of muscle or fat for meat

or producing lots of milk or eggs

Domestic dogs: Having a gentle nature

These increase yield
which increases
Plants: Large or unusual flowers profit
What does selective breeding involve?

1. Decide which characteristics are important

enough to select
2. Humans select individuals with desired
characteristics and breed them together
3. Humans then select the offspring with the
desired characteristics and breed them together
4. This is repeated over many generations until all
the population show the desired characteristic
Selective breeding produces new breeds
and varieties. What is the difference?
Selective breeding of wild cabbage has produced a
number of different vegetables, different varieties of
the same species.
Advantages and Disadvantages?
Inbreeding and Gene Pools
• Genes and their different alleles within a population are
known as its gene pool
• Selective breeding can involve mating animals with close
relatives. This is called ‘inbreeding’
• This results in very little variation in the population – a
reduced gene pool
Benefits of selective breeding
include:
• new varieties may be economically important, by
producing more or better quality food
• animals can be selected that cannot cause harm,
for example cattle without horns
Risks of selective breeding
include:
• reduced genetic variation – more organisms
susceptible to specific insects or disease
• rare disease genes can be unknowingly selected as
part of a positive trait, leading to problems with
specific organisms (e.g. a high percentage of
Dalmatian dogs are deaf)
• creation of physical problems in specific organisms
(e.g. large dogs can have faulty hips due to not
being formed correctly)
Apply it:
The selective breeding
of racehorses