Inbreeding (breeding between close relatives) increases
- A
Effective population size (boosting overall genetic variation maintained across generations)
- B
Heterozygosity (often masking recessive deleterious alleles and improving offspring vigor)
- C
Gene flow into the population (introducing new alleles from neighboring breeding groups)
- Dcheck_circle
Homozygosity (often exposing recessive deleterious alleles → inbreeding depression)
Explanation
Increased homozygosity exposes hidden recessive disease alleles — one reason most species avoid mating with close relatives.