Every tree species has its story. Unraveling all 73,000 of them is a significant undertaking for science, in no small part because a considerable proportion of tree biodiversity is tropical, rare, remote and subject to the ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 15, 2023
2
145
Higher levels of inbreeding in thoroughbreds result in fewer racehorses, according to new research published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
Plants & Animals
Jul 13, 2022
0
51
The Swedish Parliament recently presented its ambition to drastically reduce number of wolves in Sweden—from approximately 400 down to approximately 200. Scientists are now reacting to this goal. In a letter published in ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 7, 2022
0
1052
Vaquita porpoises are on the edge of extinction, with just 10 left in their sole habitat within Mexico's Gulf of California.
Plants & Animals
May 8, 2022
0
70
Finding love in a small isolated place can be tough when everyone is a familiar face, or when half the dating pool is already out because they're all close relatives.
Plants & Animals
Mar 7, 2022
0
150
There' s no longer any doubt—the wolves found in Norway and Sweden today are actually Finnish, according to extensive studies done on their genetic makeup. Humans wiped out Norway's original wolf population in the wild ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 1, 2021
1
40154
More and more threatened species are relying on captive breeding to avoid extinction. Some species on the brink only exist in captivity, and others depend on captive breeding for their recovery before they're released to ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 4, 2020
0
3
Biologists have long known that inbreeding can be detrimental. Inbreeding results in less genetic variation, making species more vulnerable if changes occur that require them to adapt.
Evolution
Jul 30, 2020
0
24
Habitat destruction results in wildlife populations that are small, made up of relatives, and have low genetic variation.
Plants & Animals
Aug 1, 2019
0
17
A new paper explores the genetic signatures of a pair of wolves isolated on Isle Royale, a remote national park in Lake Superior. The pair are father-daughter and share the same mother. Such close inbreeding leads to genetic ...
Ecology
May 29, 2019
0
144
Inbreeding is breeding between close relatives, whether plant or animal. If practiced repeatedly, it can lead to exposure of recessive, deleterious traits. This generally leads to a decreased fitness of a population, which is called inbreeding depression. Deleterious alleles causing inbreeding depression can subsequently be removed through culling. This is known as genetic purging.
Livestock breeders often practice inbreeding to "fix" desirable characteristics within a population. However, they must then cull unfit offspring, especially when trying to establish the new and desirable trait in their stock.
In plant breeding, inbred lines are used as stocks for the creation of hybrid lines to make use of the heterosis effect. Inbreeding in plants also occurs naturally in the form of self-pollination.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
