What is inbreeding?

In the human populations, inbreeding concerns two biologically related people who connect and have children. The degree of relationship is not always fully defined, but an example is the marriage between two cousins ​​or the other cousins, and these marriages are still legal in many places, and in most parts of the world a few hundred years ago it was quite common. From a health point of view, inbreeding is a problem as it can cause more likely genetic defects or vulnerability to certain diseases. That is why many countries and cultural groups discourage their practice. Where it is common for people with many relationships to themselves to produce children, it is also more likely that the available gene fund with each generation will decrease. In areas that are geographically cut off from other places or where for other reasons, it is very likely that inbreeding occurs, some genetic defects begin to perform more often and the overall relationship between friends often leads to descendants thatThey have similar properties to the smaller size and lower level of fertility.

If the area of ​​the whole population or another group regularly practices inbreeding, one thing that happens in an effort to fix, it is a process called spending. The high rate of infants mortality, the child's mortality rate, or the inability to reproduce can reduce the amount of negative features that are transmitted, and leave only those people who have the strongest genetic make -up. This could increase the level of survival of future generations and choose for the most sought after genes.

There are known examples of systemic inbreeding. For many centuries, the European monarchy has usually only married a nobility, and there have been many marriages of people with one or more relational ties to each other. This practice, repeated over time, has led to the expression of serious illnesses that often influenced the mortality of infants. Long before the existence of European monarchyE, other cultural groups, such as ancient Egyptians, practiced marriages among much more closely relatives. Egyptian kings often married their sisters.

There are taboo culturally that has appeared on inbreeding, and many of them existed long before the genetics of things was fully understood. In many cultures there are strong incest taboo, which prohibits routine practice of mating siblings or parents to children. Some cultures are expanding it and they feel that the marriage between cousins ​​is also unacceptable. On the contrary, in other past and contemporary cultures, marriage is only acceptable if both people have a defined level of relationship; For example, nieces must marry with uncles. Alternatively, some groups seem to be so aware of the potential genetic risks inbreeding that people must not marry anyone from their own geographical area and have to find friends in other cities or tribes.

Souiscent people who wish marriage could use GeneTical testing to determine some risks for offspring. The tests do not hide everything, but may eliminate concerns about the transmission of certain diseases, such as autosomal recessive inherited disorders, handed over to children at a speed of 25%, when both parents have a gene for the condition. With relatives of friends, the probability of both bears the gene for these types of disorders, increased.