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[no subject]

I'd like to refer folks to the Science (AAAS) Journal that just arrived this
past week.  It is the June 28, 2002 edition.  Authors:  A. R. McCune et al.,
from Cornell, Dept. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.  Title of paper:  A
low genomic number of recessive lethals in natural populations of bluefin
killifish and zebrafish
This has direct relevance to us fishkeepers, and our concern about
inbreeding.  Their abstract:  "Despite the importance of selection against
deleterious mutations in natural populations, reliable estimates of the
genomic numbers of mutant alleles in wild populations are scarce.  We found
that, in wild-caught bluefin killifish Lucania goodei (Fundulidae) and
wild-caught zebrafish Danio rerio (Cyprinidae), the average numbers of
recessive lethal alleles per individual are 1.9 (95 % confidence limits 1.3
to 2.6) and 1.4 (95 % confidence limits 1.0 to 2.0), respectively.  These
results, together with data on several Drosophila species and on Xenopus
laevis, show that phylogenetically distant animals with different genome
sizes and numbers of genes carry similar numbers of lethal mutations."

Anyway, there is some new information now to help the debate I have seen
several times in KillieTalk.
Sue Katz
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