Article history: Received 8 January 2008 Accepted 10 November 2008 Population structure, performance testing and breeding scheme of the sire breed Piétrain in Bavariawere analyzed as a basis for further optimization studies of the breeding programme. To evaluate the current breeding programme, genetic trends and effective population size were estimated. Four data sets were used which contained ...

Inbreeding refers to the fusion of related individuals' gametes, with self-fertilization (selfing) being an extreme form inbreeding-involving gametes produced by same individual. Selfing is expected reduce heterozygosity average 50% in one generation; however, little known about empirical variation on a genome level surrounding this figure and factors that affect variation. We selfed genotypes ...

effects of lamb and parents coefficient of inbreeding (ci) on wool weight were studied using 10,868 wool records belonging to 3,244 iran black lambs (1,633 males and 1,611 females) representing 96 rams and 995 ewes collected during 1983-2006 from animal breeding station of abbas abad. year and month of shearing, ci of lamb and dam, sex and birth type had significant affect on wool weight among ...

Inbreeding depression is of major concern for the conservation of threatened species, and inbreeding avoidance is thought to be a key driver in the evolution of mating systems. However, the estimation of individual inbreeding coefficients in natural populations has been challenging, and, consequently, the full effect of inbreeding on fitness remains unclear. Genomic inbreeding coefficients may ...

Avoiding inbreeding, and therefore avoiding inbreeding depression in offspring fitness, is widely assumed to be adaptive in systems with biparental reproduction. However, inbreeding can also confer an inclusive fitness benefit stemming from increased relatedness between parents and inbred offspring. Whether or not inbreeding or avoiding inbreeding is adaptive therefore depends on a balance betw...

Inbreeding depression is widely hypothesized to drive adaptive evolution of precopulatory and post-copulatory mechanisms of inbreeding avoidance, which in turn are hypothesized to affect evolution of polyandry (i.e. female multiple mating). However, surprisingly little theory or modelling critically examines selection for precopulatory or post-copulatory inbreeding avoidance, or both strategies...

pedigree information of 3972 holstein cows and bulls, from 1961 to 2008, was used to calculate inbreeding coefficients and their effects on production traits and subclinical mastitis of dairy farm cows inazerbaijan province,iran. inbreeding was included in a linear mixed model as a class variable. data were analyzed using the proc mixed of sas by mivque method. results showed that average inbre...

The objective of this study was to describe changes in genetic diversity in a colony of dog guides since its founding. Two breeds, German Shepherds (GS) and Labrador Retrievers (LR), were evaluated. Data were pedigrees of 4,699 GS and 3,573 LR dogs bred for use as guides by The Seeing Eye, Inc., Morristown, NJ. Rapid increases in average pairwise numerator relationships occurred in both breeds,...

Inbreeding increases parent-offspring relatedness and commonly reduces offspring viability, shaping selection on reproductive interactions involving relatives and associated parental investment (PI). Nevertheless, theories predicting selection for inbreeding versus inbreeding avoidance and selection for optimal PI have only been considered separately, precluding prediction of optimal PI and ass...

Bees are the primary pollinators of flowering plants in almost all ecosystems. Worldwide declines in bee populations have raised awareness about the importance of their ecological role in maintaining ecosystem functioning. The naturally strong philopatric behavior that some bee species show can be detrimental to population viability through increased probability of inbreeding. Furthermore, bee ...