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9000 BCE
What is selective breeding? *
Selective breeding is the process of humans choosing parent plants or animals with desired traits to breed together making the ideal offspring with the ideal characteristics. -
8000 BCE
Basic Information*
Corn, also known as maize is a part of the Zea genus. The original wild version was known as Tesonite. Originally the Tesonite plants were very small and selective breeding over time allowed them to become as large as modern corn is today. **The time is not important to this information -
7000 BCE
In the beginning
The first ever maize was domesticated 8,700 years ago. It was domesticated in Mexico’s Central Balsas River Valley. Scientists used biological evidence to uncover the details behind the first ever domesticated maize. The plant was domesticated from it's wild grass ancestor, Tesonite. The farmers noticed that not all plants looked, tasted and were the same. Some tasted better, some were larger. Farmer selected plants with desirable traits and saved their seeds to plant them again next season. -
4000 BCE
Selective Breeding *
Not much information was found in between. However we can assume that selective breeding continued for us to get to the modern plants we have today. Selective breeding happens when farmers notice differences in the plants and choose to keep planting seeds of the variants they prefer. People always want to improve so it is appropriate for us to assume selective breeding took place along the way. -
3000 BCE
Advantages of selective breeding *
Some advantages are the traits the plant can gain, such as the ability to grow well in various climates, soil types and produced the largest number of kernels. Farmers choose their desired traits and can even combine them to make hybrids (talked about later). -
2000 BCE
Disadvantages of selective breeding *
Some disadvantages of selective breeding can be that if a farmer chooses to make his whole crop one variant that he favored, if it were to be stricken with disease the whole crop would die. This is called a lack of diversity/variation in the gene pool. -
Charles Darwin's Theory
In the 1860s, Charles Darwin developed his "Theory of Evolution". It stated that plants and animals would adapt and evolve to best fit their environment. The genes which helped them survive were to be passed down from generation to generation allowing future generations to grow in strength and ability. This event was very important to the domestication of not only corn but all plants and animals. -
Gregor Mendel's Discovery
Gregor Mendel discovered many things in his research with pea plants. He discovered a lot about how individual traits were tied to inherited genetics. This scientific discovery contributed greatly to the progression of hybrid plants. -
Hybrids vs Inbreeds
G.H. Shull, a geneticist, discovered through many experiments that hybrid plants, rather than inbred plants, had better resistance, production and growth. This is because the hybrids inherited ALL traits from each plant involved in their production. Inbreds only inherit traits from one type and they inherited both good and bad traits. Hybrids only contracted the best traits. -
Today
Currently in the United States, almost 99% of all crops are produced using hybrid seeds. These crops include wheat, soybeans, cotton, peanuts etc. This shows that the selective breeding that happens thousands of years ago significantly affects the world today. -
Infographic *
