Inbreeding avoidance among interacting females and males is not always observed despite inbreeding depression in offspring fitness, creating an apparent "inbreeding paradox." This paradox could be resolved if selection against inbreeding was in fact weak, despite inbreeding depression. However, the net magnitude and direction of selection on the degree to which females and males inbreed by pair...

BACKGROUND Inbreeding depression is an important evolutionary factor, particularly when new habitats are colonized by few individuals. Then, inbreeding depression by drift could favour the establishment of later immigrants because their hybrid offspring would enjoy higher fitness. Rotifers are the only major zooplanktonic group where information on inbreeding depression is still critically scar...

A previous review of inbreeding in natural populations suggested that close inbreeding (inbreeding coefficient f = 0.25) is generally rare in wild birds and mammals. However, the review did not assess rates of moderate inbreeding (f = 0.125), which may make a rather larger contribution to overall inbreeding in a population. Furthermore, previous studies may have underestimated the prevalence of...

Tychoparthenogenesis, a form of asexual reproduction in which a small proportion of unfertilized eggs can hatch spontaneously, could be an intermediate evolutionary link in the transition from sexual to parthenogenetic reproduction. The lower fitness of tychoparthenogenetic offspring could be due to either developmental constraints or to inbreeding depression in more homozygous individuals. We ...

Understanding and estimating inbreeding is essential for managing threatened and endangered wildlife populations. However, determination of inbreeding rates in natural populations is confounded by incomplete parentage information. We present an approach for quantifying inbreeding rates for populations with incomplete parentage information. The approach exploits knowledge of pedigree configurati...

While much attention has been paid to the effects of inbreeding on fitness, this has mostly come from a genetic perspective. Consequently, the interaction between inbreeding and the environment is less well understood. To understand the effects of inbreeding in natural populations where environmental conditions are variable, we need to examine not only how the effects of inbreeding change among...

Abstract Whilst the effects of inbreeding on growth and survival have been well studied, knowledge impact social behaviour is scarce. Animal groups are often composed relatives, which can facilitate cooperation (due to kin selection) improve group performance accordingly. Therefore, increased genetic relatedness in inbred could increase performance, whilst reduced diversity negative (inbreeding...

Two selection experiments comparing the relative efficiencies of individual, family, and combination selection were conducted. The expected results for larval weight of Tribolium (h(2) = 0.20) and for pupal weight (h(2) = 0.40) were that combination selection would be a more efficient method than family selection, and that family selection would exceed individual selection. In experiment I, ind...

Inbreeding refers to the fusion of related individuals' gametes, with self-fertilization (selfing) being an extreme form inbreeding-involving gametes produced by same individual. Selfing is expected reduce heterozygosity average 50% in one generation; however, little known about empirical variation on a genome level surrounding this figure and factors that affect variation. We selfed genotypes ...

Cooperatively breeding American crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos) suffer a severe disease-mediated survival cost from inbreeding, but the proximate mechanisms linking inbreeding to disease are unknown. Here, we examine indices of nestling body condition and innate immunocompetence in relationship to inbreeding and disease mortality. Using an estimate of microsatellite heterozygosity that predicts i...