Genetic Diversity

[Starsaber]

With 80-however many people there were on Destiny, did they really have enough people to create a stable gene pool that would last 2000 years? I remember in BSG, Baltar said that the Colonial fleet (with like 45000 people) wouldn't last nearly that long before they started having problems, so the question just kind of popped into my head. Any thoughts?

[themeatcleaver]

with a little bit of thought, i'd have to imagine that they'd be alright but yeah... it seems a little low to me. then again, they didn't have much of a choice so hey, like Scott said, its a crap shoot!

[blueray]

i never watched bsg so i don't know about that.

as for sgu: i guess that there would be, seeming as about 100 people on destiny would create 50 families or so, then the kids (who aren't related to eachother) would have more kids, who will have kids and ect. so with each generation the amount of families increase, meaning that there are more distant relatives. and by a 1000 years there was a population of a million people.

[jelgate]

I don't think it would that much of an issue given the diversity of the original population

[D Toccs]

The minimum requirements for a stable gene pool (at least one that could expand to millions and last for 2000 years) are around 2000 people, ideally with a ratio of 2 or 3 women for every man.

i guess that there would be, seeming as about 100 people on destiny would create 50 families or so.

100 people would only be able to create 50 families if the ratio was 1:1 women to men. However the Destiny crew has been shown to consist of more men then women.

This was all discussed in the pre-airing thread in more detail. But I feel the only way that the Destiny crew could hope to diversify their gene pool would be for all of the women to have multiple children each to multiple partners, in effect becoming baby making machines for the rest of their lives.
Even then, genetic degradation would be a major factor well before 2000 years.

Realistically it's just not feasible, but then again neither was the Serrakin/Human crossbreeding on Hebridan.
It's fiction, just go with it

[SG-17]

I remember that someone did the math in the speculation thread and it came out to be that 20 breeding pairs were sufficient to prevent serious genetic defects.

[D Toccs]

I remember that someone did the math in the speculation thread and it came out to be that 20 breeding pairs were sufficient to prevent serious genetic defects.

Each one of those pairs would have to have at least 3 or 4 children. Each one of those children would have to be paired up with someone in an "arranged marriage" in order to keep maximum diversity and avoid the same families crossbreeding more then needed.

In short, the society for at least the first few generations would be centered around the gene pool.
You would be assigned a sexual partner (the only one you'd be allowed to have) and your duty would be to produce as many children with that partner as possible. Your children upon coming of age would then be assigned their own partners and so on.

Given human nature, such a structured society would be difficult to maintain.

[escyos]

Theres only like 60 people aboard. Most of them are male so a fiar portion of genetic material is diverse enough to stave off genetic degradation for at least 3-4 generations.

If it is meticulously planned out and people are only allowed to breed with certain people then it is possible until they have at least 500 people.

[tomaso88]

If their are millions of people at some stage wouldnt they have to be inbreeds and is the chances of that many people even happening even realistic at all I mean seriously their aren't that many people on destiny to start a civilization like some one said it was mentioned on battlestar galactica that 40thousand would be hard enough to start one and on sgu we are talking about like 80 max people. I thought the idea was cool but very very very unrealistic

[GoodSmeagol]

You underestimate the power of the genome.
Having your third cousins children is 100% within acceptable genetic norms.

Populations can spring forth from much fewer specimens then you can think.
The Galapagos Islands have a diverse population of tortoises.
No more then 10 females are the parents to every single one of the 10+ species of tortoises you can find on the different islands. They have been there for millions of years.
Human genome is a little more complicated and would require a slightly more diversified genetic profile. Once you reach thousands tho, genetic diversity would not be an issue ever again.

^500 people would be like 4th or 5th generation, clearing that 3rd cousin stuff too^

Interesting episode!

[BadOnion]

But don't all you good Christians believe we started with just two people?

[tomaso88]

But don't all you good Christians believe we started with just two people?

actually you are wrong about that the catholic church has acknowledged that a lot of the stories such as the creation stories were teaches and not fact.

[wolpertinger]

You underestimate the power of the genome.
Having your third cousins children is 100% within acceptable genetic norms.

Populations can spring forth from much fewer specimens then you can think.
The Galapagos Islands have a diverse population of tortoises.
Interesting episode!

It is more a problem of humans in particular: we are genetically rather uniform due to some bottlenecking roughly 70k years ago (it is often being said that any two humans are genetically more similar to each other than two chimps from the same forest)

That being said, the founding population here also included some LA members so there should be enough genetic diversity

[darkthunder84]

Alot of people believe in the stories written in the Bible (new and old testament). According to the Bible, we're all descendant from Adam and Eve (2 people). If 2 people are enough to eventually create a civilization of BILLIONS, why can't a group of 60-80 people form a civilization of MILLIONS (which is less) ?

[Browncoat1984]

My problem is that 2000 years did not make an advanced society like that quite believable. Maybe they went back farther, like 20,000 years or something.