The long-standing practice of inbreeding or endogamy, where individuals marry within a small community, increases the likelihood of passing disease-causing gene variants—alterations in DNA—to offspring, thereby elevating the risk of genetic disorders. According to lead author Kumarasamy Thangaraj, a senior scientist at the CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, endogamy is the leading factor behind population-specific diseases in India.
While genetic diversity across a population improves their chances of survival in the future, the study said population fragmentation of tigers can decrease this variation.
