Luther Burbank was a plant breeder who developed a strain of potato plant that produced more tubers of larger size than other potato plants that were grown on farms at the time. This strain of potato was also resistant to the potato blight that had wiped out the potato crops in Ireland in the mid-1800s. How did Burbank's process in developing this potato compare to the process of natural selection?

a. Burbank's process was slower.
b. Burbank's process did not affect the genetic makeup of the potato.
c. Burbank's process did not place the potato plant under any type of selection.
d. Burbank's process did not involve environmental pressures to shape the outcome.

Is it D?

I would assume so.

Please only post your questions once. Repeating posts will not get a quicker response. In addition, it wastes our time looking over reposts that have already been answered in another post. Thank you.

No, it is not D. The correct answer is B. Burbank's process did not affect the genetic makeup of the potato.

While natural selection involves the process of genetic variation and the survival of the fittest in a given environment, Burbank's process was based on selective breeding or artificial selection. He manually selected and crossed potato plants with desirable traits over multiple generations to create a new strain of potatoes with specific characteristics, such as increased tuber production and resistance to potato blight.

Burbank's process did not involve the same mechanisms of genetic variation and environmental pressures that are characteristic of natural selection. Instead, it relied on intentional manipulation by humans to selectively breed for desired traits. Therefore, it did not directly affect the potato's genetic makeup in the same way that natural selection in nature would.