Traditionally Kazakhstan discourages marriages between individuals with common relatives in the previous 7 generations. Calculate the risk of inbreeding for such a couple. What would that risk be if they have a common ancestor 4 generations ago?
Inbreeding leads to inbreeding depression which is characterized by genetic disorders and decreased biological fitness. Inbreeding leads to homozygosity and it increases the chance of inheritance of recessive traits in the offspring. Autosomal recessive disorders occur in individuals who have two copies of recessive alleles. The chances of both parents being carrier of the same disorder are greater in inbreeding than outbreeding. The risk is greater when the parents are close relatives and lower for relationships between more distant relatives, such as second cousins, though still greater than for the general population. The defects produced by inbreeding are- reduced fertility, increased infant mortality, increased risk of cardiovascular disorders, stunted growth and development of physical and mental health, etc. In the question, the risk is higher in 4 generation common ancestor (fourth generation relatives) than 7 generation common ancestor (seventh generation relatives).
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