KINSHIP STRUCTURE AND HETEROZYGOSITY ON TRISTAN-DA-CUNHA

  • 1 January 1980
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 32  (3) , 445-452
Abstract
Although there are many factors influencing the genotype proportions in a small population, a heterozygote excess, caused by avoidance of incestuous matings, will often be the expected observation. In the population of the small South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha, such an excess is observed, and its origin was investigated by partitioning the population by sex and generation. Although for such a small population the test for random pairing of genes is not sufficiently powerful to produce significant results, the pattern of homozygote deficiency is suggestive of avoidance of close matings. The effect of current nuclear family structure and family-size distribution was also investigated.

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