Not all forms of biotechnology depend on microorganisms. Hybridization is an example. Farmers long ago learned that they could control the types of animals bred by carefully selecting the parents. In some cases, they actually created entirely new animal forms that do not occur in nature. The mule, a hybrid of horse and donkey, is such an animal.
Hybridization has also been used in plant growing for centuries. Farmers found that they could produce food plants with any number of special qualities by carefully selecting the seeds they plant and by controlling growing conditions. As a result of this kind of process, the 2–3-in (5.1–7.6-cm) vegetable known as maize has evolved over the years into the 12-in (30-cm), robust product called corn. Indeed, there is hardly a fruit or vegetable in our diet today that has not been altered by long decades of hybridization.
Until the late nineteenth century, hybridization was largely a trial-and-error process. Then the work of Gregor Mendel started to become known. Mendel's research on the transmission of hereditary characteristics soon gave agriculturists a solid factual basis on which to conduct future experiments in cross-breeding.
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