Why don't all animals avoid inbreeding?
Proc Biol Sci
; 288(1956): 20211045, 2021 08 11.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-34344184
ABSTRACT
Individuals are expected to avoid mating with relatives as inbreeding can reduce offspring fitness, a phenomenon known as inbreeding depression. This has led to the widespread assumption that selection will favour individuals that avoid mating with relatives. However, the strength of inbreeding avoidance is variable across species and there are numerous cases where related mates are not avoided. Here we test if the frequency that related males and females encounter each other explains variation in inbreeding avoidance using phylogenetic meta-analysis of 41 different species from six classes across the animal kingdom. In species reported to mate randomly with respect to relatedness, individuals were either unlikely to encounter relatives, or inbreeding had negligible effects on offspring fitness. Mechanisms for avoiding inbreeding, including active mate choice, post-copulatory processes and sex-biased dispersal, were only found in species with inbreeding depression. These results help explain why some species seem to care more about inbreeding than others inbreeding avoidance through mate choice only evolves when there is both a risk of inbreeding depression and related sexual partners frequently encounter each other.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Banco de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Preferencia en el Apareamiento Animal
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Depresión Endogámica
Tipo de estudio:
Systematic_reviews
Límite:
Animals
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Female
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Humans
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Male
Idioma:
En
Año:
2021
Tipo del documento:
Article