Blog Post Module 6: Reflection Prompt
Inbreeding:
Inbreeding is very common when studying organisms and genetic lines. Inbreeding is in simple terms of the mating of organisms closely related in genetic lines and related by ancestery. Often when we think about inbreeding, the idea is associated with the breeding of family members. There are some benefits but also many downfalls to inbreeding. One problem with inbreeding is when the genetic lines are so closely related, recessive alleles can present themselves at higher rates.
When looking at inbreeding, it is important to recognize some of the benefits when looking at inbreeding because inbreeding can lead to the evolution of assortative mating. Assortative mating is a mating pattern in which similar phenotypes mate with one another more frequently than would be expected under other random matting patterns. Phenotypes that would be present in this setting include body size, skin coloration, and other traits. Some benefits include creating ideal specimens, the stronger or more ideal organisms might breed and have ideal offspring. In other words, if a certain trait is beneficial, and two organisms have that trait, they might breed and produce an individual with high fitness. The organism will have higher fitness which will allow it to survive and mate later on.
But with that, there are many costs of inbreeding that may have prompted the evolution of inbreeding avoidance or disassortative mating. Some of these costs are centered around associative mating because it is not always ideal. When associative mating happens, organisms will have similar genotypes and the genetic lines may have more recessive allele mutations present themselves. The recessive allele mutations are not always ideal and can hurt the organisms as well, like the cases with hemophilia in the royal family. In humans, inbreeding is not wanted because it can cause blindness, hearing loss, and many other issues.
There are costs and benefits of inbreeding in populations. It depends on the trait and when a genetic line gets too similar, issues can arise with recessive alleles. Some organisms can become more fit but other times it ruins an organism's fitness. Assortative mating is complicated but it can help to understand inbreeding.
Hi Madison,
ReplyDeleteI like how you bring up the royal families and the effects that inbreeding has had on humans. It is so interesting to see how in humans we have seen so many deleterious mutations present. We obviously don't do experiments on human inbreeding but since in some organisms and populations you can see some benefits from these deleterious alleles it would be interesting to see how this could possibly present in humans but it is obviously very unethical.
Madison, I enjoyed reading your ideas about inbreeding. It reminded me of a balancing act, in which the performer cannot lean too far in either direction or else he or she will fall. This is similar to inbreeding and assortative mating because while assortative mating can provide advantages to offspring, deleterious recessive alleles are also more likely to arise in a population as a result of similar individuals mating. All in all, great blog post Madison and I look forward to reading more of your blog posts in the future!
ReplyDeleteMadison,
ReplyDeleteI always love reading your blogs! I thought that your explanations for the different outcomes of inbreeding were really solid, and I appreciate how you lay out your information and do a wrap up of what you said at the end. I also liked the graphic you chose!
I know I have probably said this before, but Madison... I love the lay out of your blogs. You also always have an amazing way of explaining the concepts and relating them to things in day to day life that make it easier to remember. I found that we came up with similar costs of inbreeding. I think the easiest negative effects of inbreeding are those that are physical. However, those are not necessarily the ones that are the worst of potentially deadly.
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