SynthesisEcology letters2022
Sex-specific inbreeding depression: A meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Ecology letters, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 2 of them syntheses 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Decoupling of stomatal conductance, transpiration and photosynthesis in terrestrial plants under elevated temperature: a meta-analysis.Nature communications · 2026Pooled it
- Sex-specific inbreeding depression: A meta-analysis.Ecology letters · 2022Pooled it
- Limited Lifetime Costs of Inbreeding in a Large Wild Population of Superb Fairy-Wrens.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- Genome-Wide Homozygosity Predicts Inbreeding Depression in the Hihi/Stitchbird (Evolutionary applications · 2026Article
- Weeding out variability: a proof-of-concept for producing uniform FHorticulture research · 2026Article
- Impacts of parental age and inbreeding on fitness in a wild insect.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- Contrasting Patterns of Inbreeding and Inbreeding Depression in Co-Occurring Spotted Turtle and Eastern Box Turtle Populations.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Sexual selection matters in genetic rescue, but productivity benefits fade over time: a multi-generation experiment to inform conservation.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- The influence of sex-specific factors on biological transformations and health outcomes in aging processes.Biogerontology · 2024Review
- Demographic drivers of reproductive failure in a threatened bird: Insights from a decade of data.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Inbreeding and high developmental temperatures affect cognition and boldness in guppies (Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Plastome evolution of Engelhardia facilitates phylogeny of Juglandaceae.BMC plant biology · 2024Article
- Characterizing and Eliminating the Inbreeding Load.Veterinary sciences · 2023Review
- Using inbreeding to test the contribution of non-additive genetic effects to additive genetic variance: a case study inProceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Are genetic variation and demographic performance linked?Evolutionary applications · 2022Article
- How much does the unguarded X contribute to sex differences in life span?Evolution letters · 2022Article
- A sex skew in life-history research: the problem of missing males.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Inbreeding depression, the reduced fitness of the offspring of related individuals, can affect males and females differently. Although a comprehensive theoretical framework describing the causes of sex-specific inbreeding depression is lacking, empirical evidence suggests that often one sex tends to be more vulnerable than the other. However, the generality, direction, and degree of sex-specific difference in inbreeding depression remains enigmatic as studies on this topic have reported conflicting results. Here, we conduct a meta-analysis to test for sex-specific differences in the magnitude of inbreeding depression. We synthetised 321 effect sizes of experimental studies across 47 species and found a small difference in inbreeding depression between the sexes: females suffered slightly higher inbreeding depression than males. Furthermore, a higher inbreeding coefficient was correlated with higher inbreeding depression. However, there was a large amount of heterogeneity that remained unexplained, even when considering different factors that could affect inbreeding between the sexes, such as sexual size dimorphism, heterogamety, the type of trait measured and whether animals were tested in a stressful environment. As such, we highlight the need to further explore inbreeding depression across different species to determine the occurrence and causes of sex differences to increase our understanding of the evolutionary consequences of sex-specific inbreeding depression.
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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.