Scientists Find Potential Solution for Inbreeding Depression
July 27, 2012| |
Inbreeding depression or the negative fitness effects of inbreeding is one of the important topics in evolutionary biology because of its effects on population dynamics and demographics. Inbreeding depression is usually manifested in animals and plants.
Philippine Vergeer and colleagues at Radboud University Nijmegen in Netherlands conducted a study to show that, in addition to genetic processes, epigenetic processes such as drought and poor nutrition may be important in causing inbreeding effects. The team compared epigenetic markers of outbred and inbred offspring of a perennial plant (Scabiosa columbaria). They found that inbreeding causes removal of small chemical tags known as methyl groups that effectively turn genes on or off. They also discovered that inbreeding depression disappears when epigenetic variation is modified by treatment with a demethylation agent called 5-azacytidine. These findings imply that 5-azacytidine or a related compound could be a possible treatment for the harmful effects of inbreeding.
Read the articles at http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2012/07/02/rsbl.2012.0494 and http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/07/inbreedings-downside-is-not-all-.html for more information.
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