Re: Genetic advantage in interracial mating.

Joseph's recall is one of the principles use in selective breeding - ie, that inbreeding tends to concentrate deleterious alleles - so breeding "pure" lines
introduces fitness risks. Inbred lines of mice, for example are used in disease
models because of susceptibility to specific diseases. Not so good for the
mouse, but OK for medical experiments...

Whether exogamy (outbreeding) per se makes MUCH difference apart from
minimising inbreeding is a more open question. Plant and animal breeders sometimes
use outbreeding to increase genetic diversity which reveals things like hybrid
vigor and increased fertility. But they are dealing with artificial populations to
begin with.

The most coherent (readable and sound) recent work in the area is by Bill (W D) Hamilton.

In Genetic Algorithms, some work has been done on "demes" and (in part) uses outbreeding to escape local maxima, etc, but this is a long way from your question.

Does the vexed and problematic notion of "race" has anything to do with any of this?

Only from biased political agenda.

If outbreeding starts from a measure of genetic distance (and there are many ways to do this), "race" is reveals as a nonsense, sensationalist term.

Tomasso.

"Joseph Chamberlain, D.D.S." <drjchamberlain@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:C19CDA07.5AF4C%drjchamberlain@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Dear colleagues:

First I would like to say hello to all list members and introduce myself
since this is my first post to the list.

I am a dentist with specialty training in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. I
live in Southern California in the city of Torrance, in an area know as the
South Bay. I have been involved in some research that relates to human
facial (and overall) attractiveness and how it influences behavior, social
interaction and overall health.

Please forgive me if my first post is not in line with what is usually
discussed here in your list or if the scientific nature is not of the proper
degree of complexity. My knowledge of Genetics is basic at best and this is
the reason I came here to seek insight and feedback from those who know more
and can provide me with some guidance.

A while ago I remember attending a lecture by a knowledgeable geneticist who
explained the biological and genetic basis for the fact that the mixture of
races is beneficial from a genetic standpoint as it tends to favor
offsprings increasing their chances of survival.

If my memory serves me right, the explanation had something to do with the
fact that genes responsible for causing many different diseases tend
sometimes to be race-specific, having evolved in specific parts of the
planet through the process of evolution and affecting the population
restricted to that area. The closer your mating partner is to you
(genetically speaking), the more likely it is that you both had a common
ancestor from which the gene derived and the greater the possibility of both
manifesting the gene which is a requirement for many diseases (dominant
versus recessive genetic diseases).

This genetic premise explains the fact that the more races are mixed with
one another, the more these genes become diluted and less likely to manifest
themselves from a statistical point of view. This in turn leads to
a "stronger" race as the product of the mixture of individuals with
different racial characteristics.

Is this the right explanation for this phenomenon? What can you share with
me about this process ? Are there any other factors that would cause
offsprings from interracial mating to be superior from a genetic standpoint
in what survival and adaptability are concerned?

What would be a good text to find and read the explanation for this
phenomenon and would it be described in detail ? In case a text is not
available, is there a web site where I could find detailed biological
information on the genetic bases or fundamentals behind this phenomenon ?

Any help you can offer me will be greatly appreciated.

Best regards,

Joseph Chamberlain, D.D.S.
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery

.