Question

Do you think a mating between close relatives would be more likely to result in inbreeding depression (reduced fitness of the offspring) after a long history (~ thousands of generations) of inbreeding or a long history of outbreeding? (10 pts) Why? (30 pts)

Answer 1

Yes, mating between close relatives would be more likely to result in inbreeding depression after a long history (~ thousands of generations) of inbreeding.

Inbreeding depression is a decline in reproductive performance, ability to survive and other characteristics associated with fitness as a result of inbreeding. This occurs due to uncovering deleterious recessive gene make them homozygous. This leads to give more importance for more recessive allele.
This mostly depends on
1. close relationship full brother x sister (known as full-sib) mating.

2. Continuous mating of offspring to the younger parent
3. single generation of parent x offspring mating is genetically equivalent to full-sib mating.
4. High level of inbreeding include half-sib and cousin matings.