Feral Pigeons (Columba livia) Prefer Genetically Similar Mates despite Inbreeding Depression.

ABSTRACT: Avoidance of mating between related individuals is usually considered adaptive because it decreases the probability of inbreeding depression in offspring. However, mating between related partners can be adaptive if outbreeding depression is stronger than inbreeding depression or if females gain inclusive fitness benefits by mating with close kin. In the present study, we used microsatellite data to infer the parentage of juveniles born in a French colony of feral pigeons, which allowed us to deduce parent pairs. Despite detectable inbreeding depression, we found that pairwise relatedness between mates was significantly higher than between nonmates, with a mean coefficient of relatedness between mates of 0.065, approximately half the theoretical value for first cousins. This higher relatedn

SUBMITTER: Jacob G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5010204 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature