Final answer:
The term given to a measure of the loss of fitness caused by inbreeding is inbreeding depression. Inbreeding depression occurs when closely related individuals mate with each other and the offspring experience reduced fitness compared to the offspring of unrelated individuals.
Step-by-step explanation:
The term given to a measure of the loss of fitness caused by inbreeding is inbreeding depression. Inbreeding depression occurs when closely related individuals mate with each other and the offspring experience reduced fitness compared to the offspring of unrelated individuals.
Inbreeding depression can result in various negative effects on reproduction and survival, such as increased abnormalities, diseases, and reduced reproductive success.
It is caused by the combination of related genomes during fertilization, which can lead to a higher expression of harmful alleles.
There are several ways to measure inbreeding, including the use of inbreeding coefficients derived from pedigree analysis and comparing the average relatedness of parents with the expected relatedness in a random breeding population.