Posted by:
Jeff Favelle
at Wed Jun 18 16:55:09 2003 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Jeff Favelle ]
The term inbreeding has a huge negative stigma attached to it. Take humans for example. People think that inbreeding leads to things like 5 arms, 3 eyes, 2 heads, etc etc. Wrongo. The ONLY thing that inbreeding does is increase homozygosity. NOTHING ELSE. I don't know where you get the idea that Down Syndrome is from inbreeding, but it isn't. Inbreeding increases thr paring of like alleles. That's it.
Now yes, sometimes lethal recessive alleles exist and inbreeding increases the chances of those being expressed, but you won't see it in 1 generation. Not likely. Maybe in humans, but not in BP's. Humans aren't evolving anymore. Well, we are, but not in a good way. Every human gets the chance to breed and pass on his/her DNA. Even weak, sick, mentally-challenged, etc etc. This doesn't happen in the natural world. Those animals are picked off quickly and/or not able to attract mates. So MOST lethal alleles in BP's were weeded out long ago.
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You, like most people, are confused... - Jeff Favelle, Wed Jun 18 16:55:09 2003