Inbreeding and outbreeding impact on developmental stability of laboratory rat Rattus norvegicus

Abstract

Developmental stability analysis was conducted for three strains of laboratory rat Rattus norvegicus Berkenhout, 1769 and their hybrids. Developmental stability was estimated by fluctuating asymmetry of 20 characters of skull morphology. A decrease was revealed in fluctuating asymmetry for the inbred strains and for the hybrids of genetically different strains. There were not any differences in fluctuating asymmetry between the homo- and heterozygotes for the separate locus. This support the hypothesis of the dependence of developmental stability on general genetic coadaptation.