Realizing the ability to avoid inbreeding in birds

People are always aware of avoiding inbreeding. This phenomenon also occurs in some animals such as rats, land lizards or shorebirds. In BMC Evolutionary Biology, the researchers published a report, which showed that this phenomenon also occurred in pairs of birds living in a 'one wife, one husband' style. People are predicting that black-legged xitra gulls have the ability to choose mating with a different genome than their genome.

This study was conducted with the participation of Richard H. Wagner from the Konrad Lorenz Institute of the Australian Academy of Sciences, Etienne Danchin from Paul Sabatier University and researchers at Pierre and Marie Curie University, Center Alaska Science, University of Bern. Researchers tested 10 genetic markers, the location of microsatellite species (also known as sub-satellites) to find out whether xitra gulls avoid inbreeding by mating only those with genomes. other or inbreeding reduces the number of children raised.

Two black-legged xitra gulls (Rissa tridactyla) in a territorial dispute. Photo taken on Farne Island, England. (Source: iStockphoto / Liz Leyden)

Most couples avoid inbreeding. This is not just a coincidence. Therefore, perhaps the xitra gull is capable of distinguishing its relatives in a crowded population.A small number of couples with inbreeding often produce eggs with low hatching capacity, and the offspring of hatching also have a very low survival rate. According to an author of this study, Hervé Mulard, 'inbreeding will destroy these populations.'

Since the second juvenile, they are very badly affected by this inbreeding phenomenon. The resistance to infectious diseases and parasites is very low. Moreover, they were neglected by their parents and developed slowly, the chance of survival was lower than that of the first young.

Other studies have shown that male birds mate with many females often looking for distant genotype partners to ensure that the younger generation will have better and better genomes. This study provides the first evidence that avoiding inbreeding is done very closely in couples with only one wife and one husband. In these couples, both parents and children are involved in raising their children. They are almost never separated.

The team is investigating whether birds are able to identify genotypes through body odor. Mulard concluded that 'This ability can effectively serve species that live on the principle of' one wife - one husband '. Perhaps, they had to work very hard to choose a mate with a different genotype. '

Document:

Hervé Mulard, Etienne Danchin, Sandra L Talbot, Andrew M Ramey, Scott A Hatch, Joël F White, Fabrice Helfenstein and Richard H Wagner.The mansion is paired with genetically mates is maladaptive in a monogamous bird.BMC Evolutionary Biology, 2009;