Artificial selection
Artificial selection
•Ever since the first
human populations
started farming,
people have been
practicing artificial
selection
•Humans have
influenced evolution
by domesticating
plants and animals
for food and labour.
Artificial selection
DEFINITION:
•Artificial selection :
people choosing a
set of characteristics
that are desirable
and then breeding
plants or animals to
have those particular
characteristics.
Darwin’s take on
Artificial selection
• Darwin used this to explain his
theory of natural selection.
• Charles Darwin also studied the
artificial breeding of domestic
animals.
• He hypothesized that if people
could achieve such changes
amongst domestic animals in
such a short time, then natural
selection could produce all the
different species of the world
over millions of years.
Differences between Artificial & Natural
Selection
Domestication of dogs
• Dogs - first animals to
be domesticated, by
hunter gatherers in
Asia.
• Studies of domestic
dog mtDNA shows that
this started about
15 000 years ago.
• some dog fossils
indicate that this may
have occurred even
earlier.
GRAY
WOLVE
Tame wolf puppies may have been
adopted by hunter gatherers
• Inbreeding within such
a small homozygous
gene pool caused the
selection of alleles that
coded for tameness.
• In the process, linked
alleles that code for
juvenile appearance of
puppies were also
selected.
• In time, wolf puppy
features became more
and more prominent so
that a sub-species
(dogs) became
established.
• puppy traits are more
attractive to humans
• Domestic dogs have
features that are only
found in wolf puppies:
• smaller brains
• a shorter snout
• rounded heads with a
stepped forehead.
• limp ears
• many variations in
coat colour.
• smaller paws that
have sweat glands -
absent in wolves
• curled-up tails instead
of the drooping tail of
wolves.
• Ancestral dogs
sometimes mated
with ancestral wolves
in the wild, called
back-crossing.
• When individuals of a
new breed mate back
with individuals of the
ancestral stock –
results in hybrids that
are more
heterozygous.
• This strengthened the
genetic vigour of
dogs.
• It resulted in
development of the
huge variety of
different dog breeds
African basenji
Wild dogs like the
African basenji give
us a fair idea of what
the early domestic
dogs must have
looked like
• Active artificial
selection was
used to breed
dogs for a wide
range of
purposes.
• guard dogs were
selected to
protect homes
and live stock.
• selected as pets,
for hunting, for
size preference
and so on.
• Global population
of dogs is over
400 million.
Domestication of maize
Domestication of maize
• Maize was first
grown in Central
America (Mexico)
between
9 000 and 5 000
years ago.
• Genetic analysis of
mtDNA shows that it
is a hybrid from a
giant grass called
teosinte
Domestication of maize
• There must have been a
series of genetic
mutations to produce the
very different form that is
seen in the hybrid
ancestor of modern
maize.
• happened over several
thousand years because
fossils of maize kernels
show that there was a
gradual increase in the
size of the kernels.
• The kernels are the fruit
of the plant.
• American-lndian hunter
gatherers probably used
this early type of maize as
food.
• Cultivated maize became
the staple diet in the
ancient Mayan and Aztec
empires.
• Used by various Indian
tribes who spread it into
the rest of America.
• Early farmers probably
selected the best
specimens of maize, with
the largest kernels, for
Two phases in the evolution of
maize
• First phase - rapid evolution of characters
such as the female ear in ancestral
teosinte plants, probably due to mutations.
• Second phase - slower artificial selection
by humans.
• Maize kernels - also spread to Europe and
Africa over time.
ARTIFICIAL SELECTION:
Characteristics selected for
in modern maize
a. Greater productivity
of crops
b. ability to grow under
drier conditions, etc.
c. kernels are hidden in
the cob - not seen by
wild animals.
d. kernels do not drop
to the ground for
dispersal agents to
ARTIFICIAL SELECTION:
Why modern maize had to be
back-crossed
• Early in the last century maize
had to be back-crossed with
original teosinte grass.
• Due to continued inbreeding
of homozygous maize
resulted in a weakened crop.
• By cross breeding it back with
teosinte, new heterozygous
hybrids were established.
• This increased the hybrid
vigour of maize.
• Heterozygous hybrids grow
much more vigorously than
those with homozygous
genes.
Genetic modification (GM) was added
to selective breeding
GM techniques provided opportunities for
engineering other characteristics, e.g. creating
maize crops that are more resistant to droughts,
pests and diseases.
Serious concerns about the unknown effects of
GMOs on public health and the impact on
biodiversity
