Which breeding system focuses on desirable genetic traits over time?

Selective breeding is a genetic strategy that emphasizes the enhancement of specific desirable traits in plants or animals over successive generations. This approach involves choosing individuals with preferred characteristics to reproduce, aiming to pass on those traits to their offspring.

By concentrating on particular traits, such as size, disease resistance, or yield in crops, or temperament and growth rate in livestock, selective breeding steadily improves the quality and performance of a breed or strain. This method is significant in agriculture because it enables producers to develop varieties or breeds that are better suited to certain environmental conditions, market demands, or production goals.

In contrast, other breeding systems like inbreeding and linebreeding focus on maintaining genetic relationships between individuals to reinforce specific characteristics, which may lead to increased homozygosity and can potentially cause issues like inbreeding depression. Artificial insemination, while a tool used in selective breeding, does not inherently focus on the traits; it is a method of reproduction that allows for the use of superior male genetics across a wider geographic area.