SynthesisProceedings. Biological sciences2021
Why don't all animals avoid inbreeding?
Synthesis in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Why don't all animals avoid inbreeding?Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Pooled it
- Inbreeding in a Fission-Fusion Equid Decreases Following an Increase in the Number and Redistribution of Water Sources.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- Comparing the genomic inbreeding of an isolated rhesus macaque study population to wild populations.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Review
- Investigating Sex-Biased Dispersal in a Vulnerable Marine Invertebrate, the European Spiny Lobster (Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Article
- Genetic Relatedness Promotes Equal Contributions of Males and Females to Brood Care in a Biparental Cichlid Fish.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Limited inbreeding avoidance at the gamete level despite inbreeding depression in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar).The Journal of animal ecology · 2025Article
- Prioritizing Conservation Areas for the Hyacinth Macaw (Evolutionary applications · 2024Article
- Inbreeding avoidance and cost in a small, isolated trout population.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Evidence for inbreeding depression in captive Damaraland mole-rats.Biology letters · 2024Article
- Kin recognition for incest avoidance in Damaraland mole-rats,Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Inbreeding avoidance, competition and natal dispersal in a pair-living, genetically monogamous mammal, Azara's owl monkey (Royal Society open science · 2024Article
- Relatedness-based mate choice and female philopatry: inbreeding trends of wolf packs in a human-dominated landscape.Heredity · 2024Article
- Multiple mechanisms for inbreeding avoidance used simultaneously in a wild ape.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Small-scale genetic structure of populations of the bulb mite Rhizoglyphus robini.Experimental & applied acarology · 2023Article
- Impact of genetic relatedness on reproductive behavior in Pelvicachromis pulcher, a biparental cichlid fish with mutual mate choice and ornamentation.Die Naturwissenschaften · 2023Article
- Dispersal, kin aggregation, and the fitness consequences of not spreading sibling larvae.Ecology · 2023Article
- Fitness consequences of cousin marriage: a life-history assessment in two populations.Evolutionary human sciences · 2023Article
- Interpopulation variation in inbreeding is primarily driven by tolerance of mating with relatives in a spermcasting invertebrate.Journal of evolutionary biology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Individuals are expected to avoid mating with relatives as inbreeding can reduce offspring fitness, a phenomenon known as inbreeding depression. This has led to the widespread assumption that selection will favour individuals that avoid mating with relatives. However, the strength of inbreeding avoidance is variable across species and there are numerous cases where related mates are not avoided. Here we test if the frequency that related males and females encounter each other explains variation in inbreeding avoidance using phylogenetic meta-analysis of 41 different species from six classes across the animal kingdom. In species reported to mate randomly with respect to relatedness, individuals were either unlikely to encounter relatives, or inbreeding had negligible effects on offspring fitness. Mechanisms for avoiding inbreeding, including active mate choice, post-copulatory processes and sex-biased dispersal, were only found in species with inbreeding depression. These results help explain why some species seem to care more about inbreeding than others: inbreeding avoidance through mate choice only evolves when there is both a risk of inbreeding depression and related sexual partners frequently encounter each other.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.