INBREEDING IN THE HUMAN-POPULATION

Consanguineous marriage is one where the spouses have at least one common ancestor. Consanguinity leads to inbreeding which has been reported to cause deleterious effects among the children born from such marriages. The reason behind this deterioration is homozygosis of recessive alleles of subvital and detrimental nature along with those causing sterility. Works on inbreeding have been undertaken both in India and abroad for various biosocial reasons. Present work is an attempt to review the literature produced in the area, especially from India, to serve as an easy reference for the students of inbreeding.