Measurements of size and asymmetry in morphology might provide early indications of damaging effects of inbreeding or other genetic changes in conservation breeding programs. We examined the effects of inbreeding on size and fluctuating asymmetry (FA) in skull and limb bone measurements in experimental populations of three subspecies of Peromyscus polionotus mice that had previously been shown ...

Inbreeding often depresses offspring fitness. Because females invest more than males in a reproductive event, inbreeding is expected to be more costly to mothers than fathers, creating a divergence between the reproductive interests of each sex and promoting sex-specific inbreeding strategies. Males and females may bias the probability of inbreeding by selecting copulation partners, and, in sex...

In wild animal populations, the degree of inbreeding differs between species and within species between populations. Because mating with kin often results in inbreeding depression, observed inbreeding is usually regarded to be caused by limited outbreeding opportunities due to demographic factors like small population size or population substructuring. However, theory predicts inclusive benefit...

The aim of this study was to describe inbreeding and population structure in Sangsari sheep breeding station. For this reason, data from 7028 Sangsari sheep which were collected during 1987-2014 in Sangsari sheep breeding station located near to Damghan city, Semnan province were used. Lambs born during 2010-2014 were considered as reference population. The genetic structure analysis of the pop...

Genetic and Phenotypic Effects Inbreeding can have dramatic effects on a herd. These effects are the result of individuals receiving identical genes from each parent. If the parents are related, it is more likely that they have genes that are identical. An individual receiving identical genes from each parent is said to be homozygous for that pair of genes. This would be desirable if the gene t...

Synergistic epistasis for fitness is often assumed in models of how selection acts on the frequency and distribution of deleterious mutations. Evidence for synergistic epistasis would exist if the logarithm of fitness declines more quickly with number of deleterious mutations, than predicted by a linear decline. This can be studied indirectly by quantifying the effect of different levels of inb...

BACKGROUND Given that no influence of inbreeding on life expectancy could be demonstrated in Irish Wolfhounds in a previous study, it was decided to test the influence of inbreeding and other parameters on fertility in this breed. METHODS The study was based on all Irish Wolfhound litters registered in Sweden between 1976 and 2007 (n = 822 litters) as provided by the Swedish Kennel Club (SKK)...

Inbreeding and relatedness in wild panda populations are important parameters for panda conservation. Habitat loss and fragmentation are expected to increase inbreeding but the actual inbreeding levels in natural panda habitats were unknown. Using 150,025 SNPs and 14,926 SNPs selected from published whole-genome sequences, we estimated genomic inbreeding coefficients and relatedness of 49 panda...

Avoidance of incestuous matings is widely reported across many animal taxa, and the adaptive value of such behavior is explained through inbreeding depression. However, an old and somewhat neglected theoretical result predicts that inbred matings offer another, positive effect on the inclusive fitness of parents: an individual who mates with a relative will help that relative to spread genes id...

Inbreeding depression refers to the reduction of fitness that results from matings between relatives. Evidence for reduced fitness in inbred individuals is widespread, but the strength of inbreeding depression varies widely both within and among taxa. Environmental conditions can mediate this variation in the strength of inbreeding depression, with environmental stress exacerbating the negative...