Inbreeding in caudates.

[rodrigo]

I´ve been debating about this subject but in snakes in another forum and then felt curious.
Does crossbreeding affect caudates as it does to mammals??? I mean...you crossbreed a couple times and then all the eggs are unviable, or the larvae die at an early age, or horrible mutant monsters are created????
I ask this cause in snakes you can crossbreed a few times without any recessive illness showing up or any problems for the offspring. Definitely not like in mammals.
So i wondered if amphibians also get affected or not.

 

[roy]

Recessive factors are a problem in inbreeding not in crossbreeding.

I don't think it will affect fertility. But this is a bad thing as this can result in backcrosses and you'll have animals that are crossbreeds (for instance 3/4 T. dobrogicus, 1/4 T. carnifex) but look perfectly like one of the parent species. This will result in genetic pollution of the pure species. So one message:

Don't crossbreed

 

[wouter]

I totally agree with Roy., don't crossbreed!

Hybrids of Triturus cristatus and T. marmoratus occur in the wild in France, but these are not fertile from the 2nd generation. A Dutch breeder proved a few months ago that the F2 generation of Neurergus strauchii strauchii and N. s. barani hybrids in not fertile.

So, it useless...

 

[rodrigo]

i´m not crossbreeding or inbreeding.
I confused the words sorry...i meant inbreeding.
I was just curious since i think it´s inetresting that snakes tolerate several generations of inbreeding. I definitely won´t mix species...ever. And i have no plan of inbreeding my newts...
I was just trying to find out about an interesting subject...at least for me.

 

[jennifer]

I renamed this post "Inbreeding" instead of "Crossbreeding". Many people have inbred caudates for many generations and still have healthy offspring. It is not ideal, but sometimes it is necessary. For example, if you have a group of adults from a known locality, you often don't want to mix them with animals from a different locality (even if they are the same species or subspecies). So inbreeding is unavoidable.

 

[rodrigo]

i see so they tolerate it pretty well.
It´s interesting. In mammals one single generation of inbreeding can result in terrible illnesses, deformities or death.
It sure is an amazing way to survive to be able to inbreed without much damage.
thanx Jen

 

[jennifer]

Actually, inbreeding in mammals is not as bad as you might think. A recent study showed that children of first-cousins have only a slightly greater chance of genetic problems compared to children of non-relatives. And inbred strains of rats and mice are commonly used in research, and are not sickly - after a few generations of inbreeding, the bad genes have been selected out.

(Message edited by jennewt on January 20, 2007)