summary 3/17/09

This article is about the decline of inbreeding, written in our genes. this article explains how a study was done which indicates an increases in mobility, urbanisation, and cross-population mating over the last century have substantially reduced inbreeding, which then causes a more distinctive trace in the genome of modern Americans. this can also be applied to regions in the world with mass movements of immigrants. This is a major topis since inbreeding leaves a characteristic signature in the genome such as long tracts of autozygosity which represents regions in which an individual has inherited the same sets of genetic variants from both parents. In the same region the more closely-related an individual's parents are the more of these regions they will carry and the longer such regions will be. This article was interesting to me because it has to do with my research paper.