Question

method of breeding can be used for studying the ancestral characteristics

Answer 1

Part of a series onEvolutionary biologyDiagrammatic representation of the divergence of modern taxonomic groups from their common ancestorKey topics[show]Processes and outcomes[show]Natural history[show]History of evolutionary theory[show]Fields and applications[show]Social implications[show] Evolutionary biology portal Category BookRelated topicsvteA Belgian Blue cow. The defect in the breed's myostatin gene is maintained through linebreeding and is responsible for its accelerated lean muscle growth.This Chihuahua mix and Great Dane shows the wide range of dog breed sizes created using selective breeding.Selective breeding transformed teosinte's few fruitcases (left) into modern maize's rows of exposed kernels (right).

Selective breeding (also called artificial selection) is the process by which humans use animal breeding and plant breeding to selectively develop particular phenotypic traits (characteristics) by choosing which typically animal or plant males and females will sexually reproduce and have offspring together. Domesticated animals are known as breeds, normally bred by a professional breeder, while domesticated plants are known as varieties, cultigens, or cultivars. Two purebred animals of different breeds produce a crossbreed, and crossbred plants are called hybrids. Flowers, vegetables and fruit-trees may be bred by amateurs and commercial or non-commercial professionals: major crops are usually the provenance of the professionals.

There are two approaches or types of artificial selection, or selective breeding. First is the traditional "breeder's approach" in which the breeder or experimenter applies "a known amount of selection to a single phenotypic trait" by examining the chosen trait and choosing to breed only those that exhibit higher or "extreme values" of that trait. The second is called "controlled natural selection", which is essentially natural selection in a controlled environment. In this, the breeder does not choose which individuals being tested "survive or reproduce", as he or she could in the traditional approach. There are also "selection experiments", which is a third approach and these are conducted in order to determine the "strength of natural selection in the wild". However, this is more often an observational approach as opposed to an experimental approach.[1]

In animal breeding, techniques such as inbreeding, linebreeding, and outcrossing are utilized. In plant breeding, similar methods are used. Charles Darwin discussed how selective breeding had been successful in producing change over time in his 1859 book, On the Origin of Species. Its first chapter discusses selective breeding and domestication of such animals as pigeons, cats, cattle, and dogs. Darwin used artificial selection as a springboard to introduce and support the theory of natural selection.[2]

The deliberate exploitation of selective breeding to produce desired results has become very common in agriculture and experimental biology.

Selective breeding can be unintentional, e.g., resulting from the process of human cultivation; and it may also produce unintended – desirable or undesirable – results. For example, in some grains, an increase in seed size may have resulted from certain ploughing practices rather than from the intentional selection of larger seeds. Most likely, there has been an interdependence between natural and artificial factors that have resulted in plant domestication.[3]

Answer 2

Yes, breeding can help us to study ancestral characters.

When the plants or the animals are allowed to breed in different ways like cross breeding, inter specific breeding, then it allows us to research their ancestral characters.

And through this we can get information about the characters that their ancestors had.

By having this knowledge, we can even make them produce a superior progeny having all the desired qualities or the characters.

Other information related to breeding in plants :

https://brainly.in/question/6401529

Steps required in breeding :

https://brainly.in/question/5997039