Crossbreeding non-purebred parents will have less predictable outcomes.The resulting ‘Labradoodle’ is a guide dog suitable for people with allergies. For example, Poodles are crossed with Labrador Retrievers to combine a Poodle’s low-shedding coat with the Labrador’s calm, trainable temperament.Crossbreeding two purebred organisms will produce offspring that display the characteristics of interest.This is often used to produce offspring with desirable characteristics from two different individuals.Crossbreeding involves breeding two unrelated individuals.Plant breeders can use self-pollination as a type of inbreeding, creating plants that are genetically more identical and that produce identical offspring after many generations.The offspring of plants that self-pollinate are not identical to the parent plant, because their genes are shuffled during reproduction.Some species are naturally able to transfer the male gametes (sperm) in the pollen to the female parts of the flower where the female gametes (eggs) are.Most plants have both male and female reproductive parts.This reduces the rate at which the breed becomes ‘purebred’, reducing the risk of ill-health that can sometimes be seen with purebred individuals.It involves breeding together more distant relatives, such as cousins.Purebred dogs like the Labrador Retriever were originally established through many generations of inbreeding. Examples of purebred animals are Labrador Retriever dogs and Siamese cats.When this happens, an organism is described as inbred or purebred. After many generations of inbreeding, the offspring will be almost genetically identical, and will produce identical offspring.Continued inbreeding results in offspring that are very genetically alike.Inbreeding is when the animals bred are very close relatives, such as siblings.If we want to establish a population of organisms with predictable characteristics we tend to “inbreed”.Inbred populations are more likely to suffer from genetic conditions caused by recessive gene variants because they are more likely to inherit two copies of the recessive variants, one from each parent.Selective breeding often involves breeding individuals that are closely related, known as inbreeding.Infectious diseases are more likely to spread through genetically similar populations because they are vulnerable to the same diseases.Similar genetics means that the population will have the same strengths but also the same weaknesses.Selective breeding often results in a population of animals or plants with very similar genetics.Image credit: Genome Research Limited Problems with selective breeding With repeated selective breeding over multiple generations this population will get taller and taller.Ī diagram showing the effect of selectively breeding for height in plants.Some of the offspring may even be taller than both of their parents, because they may inherit a combination of different “tall” gene variants from each parent and together these make the offspring taller.For example, if we breed tall parents together and exclude shorter parents, the offspring should inherit “tall” gene variants that make them tall.We can take advantage of this to selectively breed animals or plants, choosing parents with particular characteristics to produce offspring that have those characteristics.For example, the children of tall parents may themselves be tall if they inherit a combination of ‘tall’ gene variants. An organism’s characteristics are partly determined by the combination of gene variants that are passed on from one generation to the next.Image credit: Shutterstock How does selective breeding work? Humans have selectively bred apples to create lots of different varieties. Selective breeding aims to adapt an organism’s characteristics in a way that is desirable to the humans that breed them.dogs with particular physiques and temperaments, suited to do jobs like herd sheep or collect pheasants.farm animals that produce more, better quality meat or wool.ornamental plants with particular flower shapes and colours.Humans have selectively bred plants and animals for thousands of years including:.Selective breeding involves choosing parents with particular characteristics to breed together and produce offspring with more desirable characteristics.

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