Inbreeding depression can be reduced, or purged, by selection against deleterious alleles. This prediction is the basis of the recommendation that captive wildlife populations suffering from inbreeding depression be intentionally bred from healthy inbred animals. Yet data on the effectiveness of purging inbreeding depression are few. In this study I present and use two different regression mode...

In gynodioecious species, females coexist with hermaphrodites in natural populations even though hermaphrodites attract more pollinators, are capable of reproducing through pollen, and can self-fertilize. This study tests the hypothesis that inbreeding depression helps to maintain females in natural populations. It also examines whether gender lineages that differ in selfing rates might experie...

There is ample evidence for inbreeding depression manifested as a reduction in fitness or fitness-related traits in the focal individual. In many organisms, fitness is not only affected by genes carried by the individual, but also by genes carried by their parents, for example if receiving parental care. While maternal effects have been described in many systems, the extent to which inbreeding ...

The degree to which, and rapidity with which, inbreeding depression can be purged from a population has important implications for conservation biology, captive breeding practices, and invasive species biology. The degree and rate of purging also informs us regarding the genetic mechanisms underlying inbreeding depression. We examine the evolution of mean survival and inbreeding depression in s...

Knowledge of which genes and pathways are affected by inbreeding may help understanding the genetic basis of inbreeding depression, the potential for purging (selection against deleterious recessive alleles), and the transition from outcrossing to selfing. Arabidopsis lyrata is a predominantly self-incompatible perennial plant, closely related to the selfing model species A. thaliana. To examin...

The causes and magnitude of inbreeding depression are of considerable importance for a wide range of issues in evolutionary and conservation biology, but we have only a limited understanding of inbreeding depression in natural populations. Here, we present a study of inbreeding in a large wild population of collared flycatchers (Ficedula albicollis). Inbreeding was rare, to the extent that we d...

Recent progress in the genetic analysis of inbreeding depression in plants is reviewed. While the debate over the importance of genes of dominance versus overdominance effect continues, the scope of inferences has widened and now includes such facets as the interactions between genes, the relative abundance of major versus minor genes, life cycle stage expression, and mutation rates. The types ...

In sexual reproduction the genetic similarity or dissimilarity between mates strongly affects offspring fitness. When mating partners are too closely related, increased homozygosity generally causes inbreeding depression, whereas crossing between too distantly related individuals may disrupt local adaptations or coadaptations within the genome and result in outbreeding depression. The optimal d...

Inbreeding results from the mating of related individuals and is becoming increasingly important in domestic livestock populations. Inbreeding depression is the reduction of the mean phenotypic value, particularly for traits connected with reproduction or fitness (Miglior et al., 1992). Inbreeding depression has been shown to decrease milk production by approximately 9-26 kg of milk per lactati...

A territorial isolation is a danger to the game population, causing deterioration called the inbreeding depression. The typical signs are anomalous body proportions, such as short lower jaw, shortened lifetime, weak physique and lower birth rate. This is caused by low number of game in the community. White colored deer is in the location of the CzechRepublicbred in separation since 18th century...