INBREEDING

Inbreeding

Inbreeding is reproduction from the mating of pairs who are closely related genetically. Inbreeding results in homozygosity, which can increase the chances of offspring being affected by recessive or deleterious traits. This generally leads to a decreased fitness of a population, which is called inbreeding depression. An individual who results from inbreeding is referred to as inbred. The avoidance of expression of deleterious recessive alleles caused by inbreeding is thought to be the main selective force maintaining the outcrossing aspect of sexual reproduction.

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inbreeding

Noun

  1. breeding between members of a relatively small population, especially one in which most members are related
    Inbreeding can result in handicapped children.

Verb

inbreeding



The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: inbreeding
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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