Outbred embryos rescue inbred half-siblings in mixed-paternity broods of live-bearing females

Jeanne A. Zeh () and David W. Zeh
Additional contact information
Jeanne A. Zeh: Evolution and Conservation Biology, University of Nevada
David W. Zeh: Evolution and Conservation Biology, University of Nevada

Nature, 2006, vol. 439, issue 7073, 201-203

Abstract: The ins and outs of breeding Females that mate promiscuously can produce broods of young fathered by more than one male. New research in a live-bearing pseudoscorpion indicates that multiple paternity can be beneficial for females that cannot avoid mating with close relatives. In live-bearing species, inbreeding not only increases the risk of recessive diseases but can also disrupt the cross-talk between mother and fetus necessary for embryonic development. Inbreeding results in high rates of spontaneous abortion in live-bearing pseudoscorpions. However, when females are mated to both a brother and a non-relative, the presence of outbred embryos rescues inbred half-siblings and carries the entire brood successfully to term.

Date: 2006
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature04260 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:439:y:2006:i:7073:d:10.1038_nature04260

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature04260

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().