Artificial Selection

Artificial selection has resulted in plants that are more disease-resistant, cows that produce more milk, and racehorses that run faster. one must wonder what will come next. In the blog entry answer the following question - under what circumstances should humans be artificially selecting plants or animals, if any?

Before humans interfered with evolution, there was natural selection. Natural selection is similar to the often used phrase "survival of the fittest." In an environment, there is always competition between species. Those with the more desirable traits, tend to outlast those without these traits. The species feel the pressure to evolve and end up doing so. Darwin's finches are an excellent example to describe natural selection. There is a slight change in each of the beaks depending on the food they are going to capture.

Artificial selection is similar to natural selection but involves human interference. It is the modification of plants or animals to create desirable traits. In the picture shown here, you could see that the genes from the wolf were used to breed various types of other dogs. Many humans intentionally do this to profit or gain from it. For instance, chickens are bred to increase their size. Farmers get to sell these chickens at a higher price and receive more profit from it. But what is the cost to produce these fatter chickens? The trade off to produce these enhanced chickens is a small brain size and smaller leg bones. With the added weight on the shoulders of these chickens, some of them may be unable to move and cause a great deal of pain for the chicken.

Humans see artificial selection as a way to gain certain advantages, but for animals, artificial selection could be life threatening. By creating desirable traits, it phases out other genes and causes the animal more vulnerable to certain diseases. Also, the doubling up of genes occurs, increasing the chances of two recessive genes being together. This could result in various types of diseases such as urine stones. This occurs in Dalmatian dogs which have the doubling up of the abnormal uric acid gene, causing them to be predisposed to urine stones. Sure, we get more choices in the breeds of dogs, but the cost is to high to create them. Breeders have a certain standard for the dogs they create and if that dog doesn't meet the standard, they will be killed. Is that ethical? How far are we going to go in order to produce that perfect animal? That dog's life has been cut short just because something went wrong in the process of it's creation. Under no circumstance should that dog be killed. Many breeders see their work as a form of art and have pride for it, but don't care about the life of the animal they've created. Many humans see animals as a way to gain profit from or a tool that does all the dirty work. But animals deserve more than that and shouldn't be played around with just so they could do "more." Farmers should be satisfied with whatever amount of milk their cow produces or how many eggs their hens lay.

Artificial selection with plants creates a lot more variety of foods and allows farmers to easily control pests that eat away at the crops. For instance, sweet corn produces an insecticide that kills off harmful insects. Farmers don't have to continually spray pesticides of the corn, which makes their job a whole lot easier. However, the insects could become resistant to the insecticides and other insects that go near the corn could also be affected and die. Currently, there is a debate on the harmful effects that the corn has on the monarch butterfly. A lot of the monarch butterflies are dieing because of the insecticides that the corn has. If you want to look further into this topic, go on the following website http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC59819/

I feel that artificial selection has opened up a world of options for us. There are different breeds of dogs to select from and more foods to choose from. However, I feel that it's unethical to continue artificial selection on animals. I don't have anything against experimenting with different animals to create new breeds, as long as the animal isn't hurt in the process, but enhancing the animals should be stopped. The chickens, for example, are made to be fatter than their weak limbs could support is causing them to suffer. As to the GM foods, I feel that it's alright to continue artificial selection on some foods. If the food produces chemicals that harms insects around it, then the food should just be kept under control by pesticides.

Here is a video about breeders talking about creating the perfect pet.

Work's Cited:

www.wisegeek.com/what-is-artificial-selection.htm
www.lycos.com/info/artificial-selection.html
www.biology-online.org/2/12_selective_breeding.htm