A taste for the familiar: explaining the inbreeding paradox

Owen C Dorsey; Gil G Rosenthal

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2022.09.007

A taste for the familiar: explaining the inbreeding paradox

Trends Ecol Evol. 2023 Feb;38(2):132-142. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2022.09.007. Epub 2022 Oct 11.

Authors

Owen C Dorsey¹, Gil G Rosenthal²

Affiliations

¹ Program in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Department of Biology, Texas A&M University, TX, USA; Centro de Investigaciones Científicas de las Huastecas "Aguazarca", Calnali, Hidalgo, Mexico. Electronic address: ocdorsey@tamu.edu.
² Centro de Investigaciones Científicas de las Huastecas "Aguazarca", Calnali, Hidalgo, Mexico; Department of Biology, University of Padua, Padua, Italy.

PMID: 36241551
DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2022.09.007

Abstract

The negative consequences of inbreeding have led animal biologists to assume that mate choice is generally biased against relatives. However, inbreeding avoidance is highly variable and by no means the rule across animal taxa. Even when inbreeding is costly, there are numerous examples of animals failing to avoid inbreeding or even preferring to mate with close kin. We argue that selective and mechanistic constraints interact to limit the evolution of inbreeding avoidance, notably when there is a risk of mating with heterospecifics and losing fitness through hybridization. Further, balancing inbreeding avoidance with conspecific mate preference may drive the evolution of multivariate sexual communication. Studying different social and sexual decisions within the same species can illuminate trade-offs among mate-choice mechanisms.

Keywords: assortative mating; conspecific mate preference; inbreeding avoidance; mate choice.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Animals
Inbreeding*
Mating Preference, Animal*
Reproduction
Sexual Behavior, Animal
Taste