Consanguinity, Inbreeding, and Genetic Drift in Italy (MPB-39)

L L Cavalli-sforza; Antonio Moroni; Gianna Zei

Published by Princeton University Press 2004

Consanguinity, Inbreeding, and Genetic Drift in Italy (MPB-39)

L L Cavalli-sforza , Antonio Moroni and Gianna Zei

Volume 39 in the series Monographs in Population Biology

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400847273

Overview
Contents

About this book

In 1951, the geneticist Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza was teaching in Parma when a student--a priest named Antonio Moroni--told him about rich church records of demography and marriages between relatives. After convincing the Church to open its records, Cavalli-Sforza, Moroni, and Gianna Zei embarked on a landmark study that would last fifty years and cover all of Italy. This book assembles and analyzes the team's research for the first time.

Using blood testing as well as church records, the team investigated the frequency of consanguineous marriages and its use for estimating inbreeding and studying the relations between inbreeding and drift. They tested the importance of random genetic drift by studying population structure through demography of the last three centuries, using it to predict the spatial variation of frequencies of genetic markers. The authors find that drift-related genetic variation, including its stabilization by migration, is best predicted by computer simulation. They also analyze the usefulness and limits of the concept of deme for defining Mendelian populations. The genetic effect of consanguineous marriage on recessive genetic diseases and for the detection of dominance in metric characters are also studied.

Ultimately bringing together the many strands of their massive project, Cavalli-Sforza, Moroni, and Zei are able to map genetic drift in all of Italy's approximately 8,000 communes and to demonstrate the relationship between each locality's drift and various ecological and demographic factors. In terms of both methods and findings, their accomplishment is tremendously important for understanding human social structure and the genetic effects of drift and inbreeding.

Author / Editor information

Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza is Professor of Genetics Emeritus at Stanford Medical School, and Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. His books include History and Geography of Human Genes and Genes, Peoples, and Languages. Antonio Moroni is Professor Emeritus of Ecology at the University of Parma (Italy) and member of the National Academy of Sciences (Academy of XL). Gianna Zei was Professor of Statistics and Biometry at the University of Pavia and directs the population genetics group of the CNR Institute of Molecular Genetics in Pavia.

Reviews

"This work is a uniquely significant contribution to the fields of historical demography and genetics of human populations. Both the results themselves and the approaches the researchers devised are of tremendous interest."—Mary-Claire King, University of Washington

[An] extraordinary book, packed with detailed information. . . . A careful reading of this remarkable book will yield much more information.---Walter Bodmer, Nature

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
CHAPTER 1. History of This Investigation and Structure of This Book Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
CHAPTER 2. Customs and Legislation Affecting Consanguineous Marriages, with Special Attention to the Catholic Church Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
CHAPTER 3. Demographic Factors Affecting the Frequencies of Consanguineous Marriage–A Study in Northern Emilia Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	39
CHAPTER 4. Probability of Consanguineous Marriages Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	69
CHAPTER 5. Consanguinity, Inbreeding, and Observed Genetic Drift in the Parma Valley Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	90
CHAPTER 6. A Computer Simulation of the Upper Parma Valley Population Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	122
CHAPTER 7. Islands Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	149
CHAPTER 8. Effects of Inbreeding on Normal and Pathological Phenotypes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	192
CHAPTER 9. Consanguineous Marriages in Italy: Data from the Vatican Archives Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
CHAPTER 10. Geography of Demes in Italy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	242
CHAPTER 11. Conclusions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	284
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	303
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	313
Backmatter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	317

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