Breeding is the propagation of plants and animals by sexual reproduction; usually based on a selection of parents with desirable charachteristics to produce improved offspring. In conventional breeding, offspring inherit genes for both desirable and undesirable traits from both parents. Breeders conserve desired characteristics and suppress undesirable ones by repeatedly selecting meritorious individuals from each generation to be the parents of the next. This process leads to a population expressing a combination of inherited traits that distinguishes it from the rest of the species.