Why does inbreeding increase the likelihood of the offspring having a genetic defect?
In: Biology
Imagine that everyone has two hand-written copies of Harry Potter they carry around. Each one is written based on your parents’ four copies, taking pieces of each in different combinations.
As you can imagine there are a lot of little variations in the stories from all of the copying over and over. However since you remix your parents’ versions twice, you probably won’t be missing any huge details. If a passage is really wrong in just one of your parents’ books, you’re not likely to copy it in both of yours.
But what happens if a group of people stops bringing in fresh copies, and mostly uses the same books over and over (by ‘inbreeding’)? Differences are more likely to survive, and you’ll get some really weird passages that are actually in every book in your family. Then, when you make your remixes you’re less likely to have access to corrected bits.
This is how inbred populations can end up having their own genetic canon which, in the absence of outside corrections, will be more likely to result in defects.
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