Natural selection is the gradual process by which biological traits become either more or less

common in a population as a function of the effect of inherited traits on the differential

reproductive success of organisms interacting with their environment. It is a key mechanism of
evolution. The term "natural selection" was popularized by Charles Darwin who intended it to be
compared with artificial selection, now more commonly referred to as selective breeding.
ariation e!ists within all populations of organisms. This occurs partly because random
mutations occur in the genome of an individual organism, and these mutations can be passed to
offspring. Throughout the individuals" lives, their genomes interact with their environments to
cause variations in traits. #The environment of a genome includes the molecular biology in the
cell, other cells, other individuals, populations, species, as well as the abiotic environment.$
Individuals with certain variants of the trait may survive and reproduce more than individuals
with other, less successful, variants. Therefore the population evolves. %actors that affect
reproductive success are also important, an issue that Charles Darwin developed in his ideas on
se!ual selection, for e!ample. &atural selection acts on the phenotype, or the observable
characteristics of an organism, but the genetic #heritable$ basis of any phenotype that gives a
reproductive advantage may become more common in a population . 'ver time, this process can
result in populations that specialize for particular ecological niches and may eventually result in
the emergence of new species. In other words, natural selection is an important process #though
not the only process$ by which evolution takes place within a population of organisms. &atural
selection can be contrasted with artificial selection, in which humans intentionally choose
specific traits #although they may not always get what they want$. In natural selection there is no
intentional choice. In other words, artificial selection is teleological and natural selection is not
teleological.
&atural selection is one of the cornerstones of modern biology. The term was introduced by
Darwin in his influential ()*+ book On the Origin of Species in which natural selection was
described as analogous to artificial selection, a process by which animals and plants with traits
considered desirable by human breeders are systematically favored for reproduction. The concept
of natural selection was originally developed in the absence of a valid theory of heredity, at the
time of Darwin-s writing, nothing was known of modern genetics. The union of traditional
Darwinian evolution with subse.uent discoveries in classical and molecular genetics is termed
the modern evolutionary synthesis. &atural selection remains the primary e!planation for
adaptive evolution.