One Potential Cost of Remaining in the Birth Area Is

Question

One potential cost of remaining in the birth area is inbreeding, which is costly because it
A) forces the population to maintain some harmful alleles, even though they will probably never be expressed.
B) increases the rate of gene flow between populations.
C) reduces the risk of producing offspring that are homozygous for harmful or lethal recessive alleles.
D) reduces variation among offspring.

Accepted Answer

Inbreeding reduces genetic variation among offspring, which can increase the likelihood of homozygosity for harmful or lethal recessive alleles, leading to inbreeding depression.