Just to be well and truly fuckin clear. I am not now nor have I ever been nor will I ever be contemplating shagging a family member.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

And so the reason for malfunctioning alleles not to be dominant is probably natural selection. E.g. you select away bad dominant alleles, but if we assume a low pct of inbreeding, the recessive ones are irrelevant and so they stay.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    Pretty much...

    Recessive malfunctions can hide away amongst carriers for generations before manifesting any deformities, during which time they have no effect on the carrier's survival, so there's very little selective pressure against them.

    Dominant malfunctions which cause deformities simply can't hide away, so have enormous selective pressure against them.

    Interestingly enough though, there are times where dominant malfunctions can survive that pressure...
    For example, having Sickle cell disorder increases your resistance to Malaria, so even though the full form is rarely passed on, the single allele form (which caused partial disorder) is passed on due to a slight positive selection pressure.

  • source
  • parent