As a american living in a foreign country I often have to endure all those "inbred american" jokes about hicks. I normally reply with a "Fuck you, you pinko euro wannabe faggot" but I recently started thinking about it. If relatives produce an offspring, the offspring is likely to be screwed in some way right? so to reproduce effectively parents need to have a relatively great level of genetic diversity. Other animals (including primates(I think)) do not need as much diversity and often produce offspring. So if our evolutionary predecessors have a trait and we don't then it must be some sort of mutation or evolutionary device. So I guess my question is what possible purpose can this trait serve?

id like to say that im not a biologist and all this is knowledge from school

well, first off, inbreeding will produce normal children most of the time. its just the possibility of deformities are increased

secondly, a mutation is a spontaneous and random change in genetic code, whose probability of occuring is increased by mutagens like radiation or certain chemicals. however, mutations can happen on their own. usually, a mutation in a mulitcellular organism just has that deformity for that single organism. furthermore, all the other cells will be normal.

however, the real problem is when you get mutations in reproductive cells, which are not only passed on, but will be present in every cell of the offspring

so really, mutation isnt the correct word.

if your ancestors didnt have a characteristic, and you do , then it could be a random mutation, or the gene could have just been hiding from generation to generation, as seen below

Gregor Mendel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregor_Mendel) did a lot of stuff to prove that the mother and father would each donate 1 chromosome for each pair of chromosomes in your DNA. in genetics, some characteristics are determined by the dominance of genes. some genes are dominant and some recessive. if there is a mix, the dominant one will show


eg. lets say man has brown eyes and a woman has blue eyes. lets call the brown eyes gene B and the blue eyes gene b.

now the one with brown eyes can have the genotype BB or Bb, since B dominates b. but the mother must have bb in order to have blue eyes.
during mating, one of the chromosomes from the mother and father form the genes of the child
hence there are 4 combinations (2x2) drawing a punnet square (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punnet_square) will help you

lets say the father has Bb.
the offspring will have the genotype
B from father, b from mother
b from father, b from mother
B from father, b from mother
b from father, b from mother

that is, 50% will be Bb (brown eyed) and 50% will be bb (blue eyed).
though note that although BB and Bb have the same physical trait, it will affect the characteristics of their offspring. the BB will mean that all its children will have brown eyes, since it must always give the dominant B, where as Bb can give blue eyes if the partner can give a b

the deformities that are associated with inbreeding has to do with getting two recessive genes. since there is an increased chance that people of the same parents have similar genes, the chance that these genes will come together is greater



as for the purpose of your new trait, it could serve no purpose, it could be advantageous or it could be harmful. such is the way of nature and natural selection. if you were a caveman and were born with abnormally large lungs for example, you could be able to hunt, fight and mate with more effectively, thereby furthering your genes further, but it depends on your situation. having gills, for example, wont do shit if youre living in the desert

^What he said.^

the deformities that are associated with inbreeding has to do with getting two recessive genes. since there is an increased chance that people of the same parents have similar genes, the chance that these genes will come together is greater

Are you saying that all double recessive genes cause deformities?

As a american living in a foreign country I often have to endure all those "inbred american" jokes about hicks. I normally reply with a "Fuck you, you pinko euro wannabe faggot" but I recently started thinking about it.

wait a second.

_europeans_ are calling _americans_ inbred?!?

Are you saying that all double recessive genes cause deformities?

depends on what the gene is. sometimes double recessive genes dont do much (like give blue eyes, which is technically a deformity, depending on how you see it)

though there are other methods, but i dont know them as much