Selection

One of the first uses of genetic knowledge to improve yields and the quality of plant products was applied to hybrid seed production at the start of the twentieth century by George Shull. Artificial selection today is still done by hobbyists who garden or raise domestic animals. It is done on a more professional level in agriculture and animal breeding. The benefits are enormous. Virtually all commercial animal and plant breeding uses selection to isolate new combinations of traits to meet consumer needs. In these organisms, most of the variation is preexisting in the population or in related populations in the wild. The breeder's task is to combine (hybridize) the right organisms and select offspring with the desired traits.

In the antibiotic industry selection is used to identify new antibiotics. Usually, microorganisms are intentionally mutated to produce variation. Mutations can be induced with a variety of physical and chemical agents called mutagens, which randomly alter genes. Some early strains of penicillin-producing molds were x-rayed and their mutations selected for higher yields.

Biologists also make use of selection in the process called molecular cloning. Here, a new gene is inserted into a host along with a marker gene. The marker is typically a gene for antibiotic resistance. To determine if the host has taken up the new genes, it is exposed to antibiotics. The ones who survive are those that took up the resistance gene, and so also have the gene of interest. This selection process allows the researcher to quickly isolate only those organisms with the new gene.