Are there benefits to inbreeding?



I remember learning in Organismic Biology that female Daphnia are able to reproduce sexually or asexually. When the environment is ideal and unchanging the Daphnia reproduce asexually because this form of reproduction produces offspring that are colones of the parent and if the environment is perfect for the parent it will be perfect for colones of the parent. However, when the environment is changing and the conditions are less ideal the female Daphnia will reproduce sexually with the males because this leads to offspring that are more genetically diverse giving them a better chance of being able to survive and reproduce in the new environment. 

Given this example, it seems logical that there are benefits to inbreeding not only in Daphnia but in other organisms as well. One benefit would be passing on beneficial recessive alleles, however, the chances of the offspring being homozygous recessive for an allele that decreases fitness is also increased. Another benefit, and cost, would be that the population would be more uniform which could be beneficial in a stable environment, however, it could also be catastrophic to the population if the environment began to change because the likelihood of some individuals having genes that are favored by this changing environment are slim. Dissassorative mating doesn't lead to every individual being perfectly suited for a given environment but it does increase the chances of some individuals thriving as the environment changes. Dissassorative mating also reduces the chances of birth defects as well as increasing the chances of harmful alleles or mutations being removed from the population. 

Image credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inbreeding_depression 

Comments

  1. Mary SelandersMarch 9, 2021 at 2:40 PM

    Maddy I agree that inbreeding can be very useful in certain populations, while in others the risk outweighs the benefit. I loved your example of Daphnia reproducing asexually. The way that organism are able to asses their environment and accurately react always amazes me!

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  2. Gibson HoefgenMarch 9, 2021 at 6:34 PM

    Hi Maddy,
    We mentioned some very similar points in our blog posts. I think that individuals deciding to reproduce with other individuals that look like them is very interesting. In some situations, I feel that inbreeding has more negatives to a population than it does positives. Some of these negatives include lower fertility, higher mortality rates, increased genetic disorders, and smaller adult sizes.

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