inbreeding, mating of closely related organisms. Inbreeding is chiefly used as a means of insuring the preservation of specific desired traits among the offspring of purebred animals (see breeding breeding, in agriculture and animal husbandry , propagation of plants and animals by sexual reproduction ; usually based on selection of parents with desirable traits to produce improved progeny.
..... Click the link for more information. ). Continued inbreeding through many generations reduces the chances for diversity of characteristics in the offspring and tends to reduce vigor and fertility. Only in laboratory conditions can the unwanted characteristics that frequently result from inbreeding be selected out of the strain and selection for purely advantageous traits be carried out. The necessarily uncontrolled cases of inbreeding among humans (as in closed societies or within royal families) have generally proved deleterious, and inbreeding is therefore discouraged in most societies (see consanguinity consanguinity (kŏn'săng-gwĭn`ĭtē), state of being related by blood or descended from a common ancestor.
..... Click the link for more information. ; incest incest, sexual relations between persons to whom marriage is prohibited by custom or law because of their close kinship . Ideas of kinship, however, vary widely from group to group, hence the definition of incest also varies.
..... Click the link for more information. ).

inbreeding

Mating of closely related individuals. The opposite is outbreeding, the mating of unrelated organisms. Inbreeding is useful in keeping desirable characteristics or eliminating undesirable ones, but it often results in decreased vigour, size, and fertility of the offspring because of the combined effect of harmful genes that were recessive in both parents (see recessiveness). The closest type of inbreeding is self-fertilization. In linebreeding, mates are selected on the basis of their relationships to a certain superior ancestor. The backcross (crossing a first-generation hybrid with one of the parental types) is a common method of inbreeding.

inbreeding [′in‚brēd·iŋ]

(genetics)

Reproduction behavior between closely related individuals; self-fertilization, as in some plants, is the most extreme form.

inbreeding (redirected from inbreed)

inbreeding

inbreeding
(redirected from inbreed)