How does inbreeding in humans cause birth defects?
In: 9
-Assuming you know what DNA is.
-DNA is a physical molecule, so it can be damaged by chemicals, energy rays, etc. Because of this, the human gene pool has accumulated all sorts of errors over time running in different ethnicities, families, and individuals. Sometimes these errors are bad enough to ruin an entire copy of a gene (protein recipe) and cause it to produce rubbish instead.
-DNA is passed down from parent to child, so there’s a good chance you inherit the same broken copies of genes that your parents have.
-Fortunately, all of us humans have 2 full copies of DNA, one from each parent. Even if one copy of a parent’s gene is ruined, the odds are that we will have a good one to use from the other parent. So there might not be any serious effects from these genetic errors.
-However inbreeding breaks this, because you’re no longer practically guaranteed a “good” copy of any given gene that might have an issue. You’re suddenly put at far higher risk for getting 2 broken copies of these genes, and therefore suffering from their associated health issues. The more genetically related your parents are, the worse the odds.
Latest Answers