What type of breeding involves choosing specific parents to enhance desirable characteristics in offspring?

Selective breeding is a method that involves choosing specific parents with particular desirable traits to enhance those characteristics in the offspring. This process allows breeders to focus on enhancing certain qualities such as yield, disease resistance, size, or nutritional value within a population of plants or animals. Through selective breeding, the traits that are seen as advantageous are passed on to the next generation, leading to a population that increasingly exhibits these desired traits.

This method contrasts with hybrid breeding, which involves crossing two different varieties to produce hybrid offspring that may express a combination of traits from both parent varieties. Polygenic breeding focuses on traits controlled by multiple genes, and inbreeding involves mating closely related individuals, which can lead to reduced genetic diversity and potential health issues. Selective breeding, in its targeted approach, is a foundational practice in agricultural biotechnology aimed at improving crop and livestock productivity.