CBSE Class 10 Answered

Artificial selection refers to the genetic selection which is controlled by people, within a genetically diverse population. Artificial selection is the basis of both domestication, and modern plant and animal breeding.

Humans have carried out artificial selection over more than two thousand years and cultivated wild cabbage as a food plant, and generated different vegetables from it. Some farmers selected for very short distances between leaves, and bred the cabbage we eat. Some selected for arrested flower development, and have bred broccoli, or for sterile flowers, and have made the cauliflower. Some farmers have selected for swollen parts, and come up with kohlrabi. Some have simply looked for slightly larger leaves, and come up with a leafy vegetable called kale. These common vegetables were cultivated from forms of wild mustard. This is evolution through artificial selection.

Answered by Sivanand Patnaik | 16 Oct, 2017, 08:02: AM