Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Inbreeding avoidance has been studied via three main methods: (1) observing individual behavior in the presence and absence of close kin, (2) contrasting costs of avoidance with costs of tolerating close inbreeding, and (3) comparing observed and random frequencies of close inbreeding. [38]
The avoidance of expression of such deleterious recessive alleles caused by inbreeding, via inbreeding avoidance mechanisms, is the main selective reason for outcrossing. [6] [7] Crossbreeding between populations sometimes has positive effects on fitness-related traits, [8] but also sometimes leads to negative effects known as outbreeding ...
However certain natural constraints act to limit the evolution of inbreeding avoidance, particularly when there is a risk of mating with a partner of a different species (heterospecific mating) and losing fitness through hybridization. [16] Inclusive fitness appears to be maximized in matings of intermediately related individuals. [17]
In evolutionary biology and psychology, such an ability is presumed to have evolved for inbreeding avoidance, [1] though animals do not typically avoid inbreeding. [2] An additional adaptive function sometimes posited for kin recognition is a role in kin selection. There is debate over this, since in strict theoretical terms kin recognition is ...
In the house mouse, the major urinary protein gene cluster provides a highly polymorphic scent signal of genetic identity that appears to underlie kin recognition and inbreeding avoidance. Thus there are fewer matings between mice sharing MUP haplotypes than would be expected if there were random mating. [56]
"The period before World War I led to the initiation of inbreeding in rats by Dr Helen King in about 1909 and in mice by Dr C. C. Little in 1909. The latter project led to the development of the DBA strain of mice, now widely distributed as the two major sub-strains DBA/1 and DBA/2, which were separated in 1929-1930.
Inbreeding depression is predominantly caused by the homozygous expression of recessive deleterious alleles. [167] Over time, inbreeding depression may lead to the evolution of inbreeding avoidance behaviour. Several examples of animal behaviour that reduce mating of close relatives and inbreeding depression are described next.
The child-rearing practices of the kibbutz system are sometimes cited as an example of the Westermarck effect. Seen here are a group of children in Kibbutz Gan Shmuel , circa 1935–40. The Westermarck effect , also known as reverse sexual imprinting , is a psychological hypothesis that states that people tend not to be attracted to peers with ...