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Simultaneous inbreeding and outbreeding depression in reintroduced Arabian oryx

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2000

T. C. Marshall
Affiliation:
Institute of Cell, Animal and Population Biology, University of Edinburgh, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, UK
J. A. Spalton
Affiliation:
Office of the Adviser for Conservation of the Environment, Diwan of Royal Court, P.O. Box 246, Muscat 113, Sultanate of Oman
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Abstract

In most species the offspring of closely related parents have reduced fitness compared with the offspring of unrelated parents, a phenomenon known as inbreeding depression. However if parents are very distantly related, their offspring may also have reduced fitness. This pattern, outbreeding depression, has been most commonly observed in plants and only rarely in animals. Here we examine the consequences of inbreeding and outbreeding on juvenile survival of reintroduced Arabian oryx (Oryx leucoryx) in Oman, a population with a small number of founders drawn from a number of sources. Using microsatellite-based measures of inbreeding and outbreeding, there was no apparent relationship between inbreeding or outbreeding and survival when inbreeding and outbreeding were tested in separate statistical models. However when inbreeding and outbreeding were tested in the same statistical model, we found simultaneous inbreeding depression and outbreeding depression acting on juvenile survival. Outbreeding depression may be more common in vertebrates than previously supposed, and conservation strategies that seek to maximize the genetic diversity of managed populations may risk mixing lineages that are sufficiently differentiated to cause outbreeding depression among descendants.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
2000 The Zoological Society of London

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