Beneficial Traits in Organisms
Allison and Cathrine
What is it?
Inducing beneficial traits in organisms is basically taking traits that are beneficial to the organisms purpose and breeding more with theses traits. one example of this is taking a cow that produces a lot of milk and breeding it so her offspring would also be able to produce a lot of milk. Plants are also being bread to be resistant to diseases and crop-eating insects. This method is even being used in everyday life, the hypoallergenic (hairless) cat was created through inducing beneficial traits. For example, if a farmer was trying to breed a strong and powerful horse the farmer would select the two strongest horses to be the parents. However by breeding for desirable traits the offspring will often develop diseases and other complications, like hip dysplasia in dogs, for example. http://wallace.genetics.uga.edu/groups/evol3000/wiki/ce8b9/Selective_Breeding_or_Artificial_Selection.html
How is it being used?
Looking at how evolution has shown change from eyeless blobs to moderately capable bloggers, it can seem like a fast , unknowable force. But when we look at individual traits and how they appear and disappear in ways, the functioning of cause and effect is very fascinating! It is being used in many ways today. Plants are being engineered for insect and disease resistance. The easiest method is is simple selection, which is used by nomadic ancestors. An example of this method is market- assisted- selection, which detects the traits of plants. Human Technical intervention is also being used to complete gene transfer, this works by plant breeders pollinating naturally and removing plant embryo before it stops growing, placing it in a tissue culture environment where it completes development. l Crop varieties have been developed using cell selection,including varieties of soybeans , canola , and flax. This process involves isolating a population of cells from a “elite plant” . The cells are then grown in culture. Initially the population is genetically homogeneous, but changes can occur spontaneously.
Examples of animals with induced traits
Pros and Cons
Cons:
- New health problems can be discovered
- Inbreeding can cause a number of diseases and defects
- Altering natural evolution
- There will be a loss of variations among different species
- genetic mutations can occur easily
- the animal may be put at risk or even killed with this method
- If this type of breeding continues it could ruin crops and species of animals in the future
- if there is no variation in crops all of them can be taken out by a single disease
- More successful crops
- Healthier animals
- May eliminate diseases
- Higher profit for farmers and breeders
- Plants can now grow in different conditions
- More nutrition for the animal/crop means more nutrition for us when consumed
- in the future we could have healthier people due to them eating healthier animals
Bald Chickens: An Experiment in Selective Breeding