Understanding the effects of inbreeding and genetic drift within populations and hybridization between genetically differentiated populations is important for many basic and applied questions in ecology and evolutionary biology. The magnitudes and even the directions of these effects can be influenced by various factors, especially by the current and historical population size (i.e. inbreeding ...

Genetic variation provides a basis upon which populations can be genetically improved. Management of animal genetic resources in order to minimize loss of genetic diversity both within and across breeds has recently received attention at different levels, e.g., breed, national and international levels. A major need for sustainable improvement and conservation programs is accurate estimates of p...

The objective of this study was to characterize the population structure and genetic diversity of registered American Red Angus cattle. Inbreeding and average relationship coefficients, effective population size, effective number of founders, and effective number of herds supplying grandparents to the population were calculated from the recorded pedigree. Inbreeding in 1960 was 10.7% and decrea...

Inbreeding depression (i.e. negative fitness effects of inbreeding) is central in evolutionary biology, affecting numerous aspects of population dynamics and demography, such as the evolution of mating systems, dispersal behaviour and the genetics of quantitative traits. Inbreeding depression is commonly observed in animals and plants. Here, we demonstrate that, in addition to genetic processes...

In natural populations, the expression and severity of inbreeding depression can vary widely across taxa. Describing processes that influence the extent of inbreeding and inbreeding depression aid in our understanding of the evolutionary history of mating systems such as cooperative breeding and nonrandom mate selection. Such findings also help shape wildlife conservation theory because inbreed...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Inbreeding depression is thought to play a central role in the evolution and maintenance of cross-fertilization. Theory indicates that inbreeding depression can be purged with self-fertilization, resulting in positive feedback for the selection of selfing. Variation among populations of Leptosiphon jepsonii in the timing and rate of self-fertilization provides an opportunity...

The objective of this research was to examine the effects of inbreeding in the population of Holstein cattle in the Walloon region of Belgium. The effects of inbreeding on the global economic index and its components were studied by using data from the genetic evaluations of February 2004 for production, somatic cell score (SCS), computed from somatic cell counts and type. Inbreeding coefficien...

Dystocia scores were recorded by producers on 120,434 Holsteins (218,213 records) from 1985 through 1996; dystocia scores 3 to 5 were coded as difficult births. Stillbirths were recorded for deaths within the first 48 h after birth. Data were restricted to registered cows for pedigree completeness, and inbreeding coefficients were calculated using 5-generation pedigrees. Computational restricti...

Changes in the Mean and Variance Under Inbreeding Inbreeding Inbreeding (mating of related individuals) often results in a change in the mean of a trait compared with its value in a random-mating population. Its importance is that inbreeding is generally harmful and reduces fitness. In particular, inbreeding often causes a reduction of the mean value for quantitative traits associated with repr...

CHANGES IN THE MEAN AND VARIANCE UNDER INBREEDING Inbreeding Inbreeding (mating of related individuals) often results in a change in the mean of a trait compared with its value in a random-mating population. Its importance is that inbreeding is generally harmful and reduces fitness. In particular, inbreeding often causes a reduction of the mean value for quantitative traits associated with repr...