The effects of inbreeding may be mitigated in plant populations by a phenomenon known as purging of genetic load. Over time, inbred plants show decreased fitness followed by a rebound in certain fitness traits, and can exhibit higher fitness than the original population (Crnokrak and Barrett 2002).
Calcium and Vitamin D Supplements Still Don't Work, New Study Says
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I think I’ll have to add calcium to my list of the Top Six Supplements You
Should Not Take. Here’s why.
A year and a half ago, I reported on a very large...
4 weeks ago
2 comments:
I'm just an uneducated (scientifically) but interested reader.
I can't help but notice that what you describe in this post seems similar to what PZ describes about the "Japanese puffer fish, or fugu".
http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/05/random_acts_of_evolution_1.php
Are these completely different phenomena or not?
Interesting question. Plants are known to have LOTS of "junk DNA" and thus are likely not undergoing the same process as fugu. It does bring up a concept I've struggled with though. What controls the phenomenon we've observed? Is it changes in the regulatory region or changes in the genes? Recent works by a fellow grad student (yet to be published) suggested that regulatory changes are responsible for at least the cases she looked at. I look forward to more sequenced plant genomes so the issue can be looked into further. Really cool stuff!
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