Artificial Selection - Contrast To Natural Selection

Contrast To Natural Selection

There is no real difference in the genetic processes underlying artificial and natural selection, and the concept of artificial selection was used by Charles Darwin as an illustration of the wider process of natural selection. The selection process is termed "artificial" when human preferences or influences have a significant effect on the evolution of a particular population or species. Indeed, many evolutionary biologists view domestication as a type of natural selection and adaptive change that occurs as organisms are brought under the control of human beings.

However, it is useful to distinguish between artificial selection that is unintentional or involves manipulating the environment only, and artificial selection that alter internal DNA sequences in the laboratory. Genetic manipulation in labs can be used to produce the same changes that could be attained by selective breeding faster by Cisgenesis. However, other changes such as Transgenesis introduce DNA into an organism that is not available in the species' gene pool.

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