New Scientist
Image: Just chaos
There’s more to inbreeding than dubious genes – how they are “read” matters, too. If a key influence on gene expression is blocked, inbred plants show few signs of their incestuous heritage. The finding may one day help small populations of endangered species breed healthily.
Many organisms carry two copies of each gene, with one member of the pair being dominant. This means individuals can carry a potentially harmful gene whose effect is masked by its normal partner. When two closely related individuals breed, however, their offspring may inherit two copies of the bad gene – one from each parent – and suffer its ill effects, a phenomenon called inbreeding depression.
Philippine Vergeer and her colleagues at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, have discovered that there may be more to the consequences of inbreeding than these genetic doppelgangers. Read more on newscientist.com…
