Question

Wild pumpkins have a range of toxicity. The lowest toxic fruits were used to develop the domestic pumpkins we now grow as crops. What selective shift was used in our food pumpkins?

1) stabilizing
2) diversifying
3) directional

Answer 1

The selective shift used in the domestication of pumpkins from wild, toxic varieties was directional selection, which favored plants with lower toxicity levels for human consumption.

Step-by-step explanation:

The selective shift used in developing domestic pumpkins from wild varieties with a range of toxicity levels was directional selection. This process involved the deliberate choice and cultivation of pumpkin plants that exhibited the lowest levels of toxicity, with the aim of producing fruits that are safe for human consumption. As a result of this artificial selection, the desirable traits that make pumpkins suitable for our diets like lower toxicity became more prevalent over generations.

Directional selection occurs when there is a consistent shift in a population towards a specific trait. In the case of pumpkins, early farmers selectively bred plants that produced less toxic fruits, effectively moving the overall genetic makeup of the crop in a direction that favored lower toxicity. By deliberately choosing to plant seeds from less toxic pumpkins, the trait for lower toxicity increasingly dominated the genetic pool, eventually leading to the domesticated varieties we consume today which are safe, palatable, and nutritious.