News tagged with inbreeding
US sees massive drop in bumble bees: study (Update)
Weakened by inbreeding and disease, bumble bees have died off at an astonishing rate over the past 20 years, with some US populations diving more than 90 percent, according to a new study.
Jan 03, 2011 |
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Evolution at warp speed: Hatcheries change salmon genetics after a single generation
The impact of hatcheries on salmon is so profound that in just one generation traits are selected that allow fish to survive and prosper in the hatchery environment, at the cost of their ability to thrive ...
Dec 19, 2011 |
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Study: Darwin was right to worry that marriage to his cousin affected his offspring
New research suggests that Charles Darwin's family was a living human example of a theory that he developed about plants: that inbreeding could negatively affect the health and number of resulting offspring.
May 03, 2010 |
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Pandas could be extinct in 2-3 generations: report
China's giant panda could be extinct in just two to three generations as rapid economic development is infringing on its way of life, state media said on Monday, citing an expert at conservation group WWF.
Aug 17, 2009 |
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Chance Observation Leads to Plant Breeding Breakthrough
(PhysOrg.com) -- A reliable method for producing plants that carry genetic material from only one of their parents has been discovered by plant biologists at UC Davis. The technique, to be published March 25 in the journal ...
Mar 24, 2010 |
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Exposed: The strange sex life of spiders
Here's the good news: you are a male and you are allowed to have sex, at most, twice in your life. If that's the good news -- you may well ask -- what's the bad news? It's this: if you copulate for longer ...
Apr 20, 2010 |
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Florida panthers bound back thanks to Texas mates
In the quest to save the endangered Florida panther, their Texas cousins were the cat's meow. Wildlife biologists moved eight female panthers from Texas - close relatives yet genetically distinct - into south ...
Sep 23, 2010 |
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Believing in the pygmy bunny
Like the Easter Bunny, the Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit of Washington state may soon exist only in our imaginations. None have been seen in the wild since 2004. But a new breeding program is aiming to rebuild ...
Apr 20, 2011 |
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Smell the love
(PhysOrg.com) -- Mandrills can use body odour to identify potential mates, researchers have found, in a study which lends new support to the theory that humans also have the ability to "sniff out" suitable ...
Aug 04, 2010 |
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To prevent inbreeding, flowering plants have evolved multiple genes, research reveals
A research team led by Teh-hui Kao, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State University, in collaboration with a team lead by Professor Seiji Takayama at the Nara Institute of Science ...
Nov 04, 2010 |
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Researchers take first look at the genetic dynamics of inbreeding depression
Researchers have taken a first look at the broad genetic changes that accompany reproductive declines in inbred populations. Although scientists have known for more than a century that small populations of ...
Mar 12, 2009 |
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The role of inbreeding in the extinction of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty
The powerful Habsburg dynasty ruled Spain and its empire from 1516 to 1700 but when King Charles II died in 1700 without any children from his two marriages, the male line died out and the French Bourbon dynasty came to power ...
Apr 15, 2009 |
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Turtles' mating habits protect against effects of climate change
The mating habits of marine turtle may help to protect them against the effects of climate change, according to new research led by the University of Exeter. Published today in the journal Proceedings of th ...
Jan 24, 2012 |
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Bridges built to help Borneo orangutans meet mates
(AP) -- Endangered orangutans on Borneo island are using fire hoses slung across rivers by humans to help them move around isolated forests to potentially meet new mates and boost the species' chances for ...
Oct 18, 2010 |
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Fantastic Mrs. Fox -- mother knows best for urban fox families
In urban fox families, mothers determine which cubs get to stay and which must leave while fathers have little say in the matter, new research by biologists at the University of Bristol has found.
Jul 20, 2011 |
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Inbreeding
Inbreeding is breeding between close relatives, whether plant or animal. If practiced repeatedly, it can lead to exposure of recessive, deleterious traits. This generally leads to a decreased fitness of a population, which is called inbreeding depression. Deleterious alleles causing inbreeding depression can subsequently be removed through culling. This is known as genetic purging.
Livestock breeders often practice inbreeding to "fix" desirable characteristics within a population. However, they must then cull unfit offspring, especially when trying to establish the new and desirable trait in their stock.
In plant breeding, inbred lines are used as stocks for the creation of hybrid lines to make use of the heterosis effect. Inbreeding in plants also occurs naturally in the form of self-pollination.
For more information about Inbreeding, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
