Abstract
The temporal method for estimating effective population size (N(e)) from the standardized variance in allele frequency change (F) is presented in a generalized form. Whereas previous treatments of this method have adopted rather limiting assumptions, the present analysis shows that the temporal method is generally applicable to a wide variety of organisms. Use of a revised model of gene sampling permits a more generalized interpretation of N(e) than that used by some other authors studying this method. It is shown that two sampling plans (individuals for genetic analysis taken before or after reproduction) whose differences have been stressed by previous authors can be treated in a uniform way. Computer simulations using a wide variety of initial conditions show that different formulas for computing F have much less effect on N(e) than do sample size (S), number of generations between samples (t), or the number of loci studied (L). Simulation results also indicate that (1) bias of F is small unless alleles with very low frequency are used; (2) precision is typically increased by about the same amount with a doubling of S, t, or L; (3) confidence intervals for N(e) computed using a χ(2) approximation are accurate and unbiased under most conditions; (4) the temporal method is best suited for use with organisms having high juvenile mortality and, perhaps, a limited effective population size.
Full Text
The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (1.1 MB).
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Gillespie J. H. A general model to account for enzyme variation in natural populations. V. The SAS--CFF model. Theor Popul Biol. 1978 Aug;14(1):1–45. doi: 10.1016/0040-5809(78)90002-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Hill W. G. A note on effective population size with overlapping generations. Genetics. 1979 May;92(1):317–322. doi: 10.1093/genetics/92.1.317. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Laurie-Ahlberg C. C., Weir B. S. Allozymic Variation and Linkage Disequilibrium in Some Laboratory Populations of DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER. Genetics. 1979 Aug;92(4):1295–1314. doi: 10.1093/genetics/92.4.1295. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Lewontin R. C., Krakauer J. Distribution of gene frequency as a test of the theory of the selective neutrality of polymorphisms. Genetics. 1973 May;74(1):175–195. doi: 10.1093/genetics/74.1.175. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Mueller L. D., Wilcox B. A., Ehrlich P. R., Heckel D. G., Murphy D. D. A direct assessment of the role of genetic drift in determining allele frequency variation in populations of Euphydryas editha. Genetics. 1985 Jul;110(3):495–511. doi: 10.1093/genetics/110.3.495. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Nei M., Chesser R. K. Estimation of fixation indices and gene diversities. Ann Hum Genet. 1983 Jul;47(Pt 3):253–259. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-1809.1983.tb00993.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Nei M. Estimation of average heterozygosity and genetic distance from a small number of individuals. Genetics. 1978 Jul;89(3):583–590. doi: 10.1093/genetics/89.3.583. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Nei M., Tajima F. Genetic drift and estimation of effective population size. Genetics. 1981 Jul;98(3):625–640. doi: 10.1093/genetics/98.3.625. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Pamilo P., Varvio-Aho S. L. On the estimation of population size from allele frequency changes. Genetics. 1980 Aug;95(4):1055–1057. doi: 10.1093/genetics/95.4.1055. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Pollak E. A new method for estimating the effective population size from allele frequency changes. Genetics. 1983 Jul;104(3):531–548. doi: 10.1093/genetics/104.3.531. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Schaffer H. E., Yardley D., Anderson W. W. Drift or Selection: A Statistical Test of Gene Frequency Variation over Generations. Genetics. 1977 Oct;87(2):371–379. doi: 10.1093/genetics/87.2.371. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Tajima F., Nei M. Note on genetic drift and estimation of effective population size. Genetics. 1984 Mar;106(3):569–574. doi: 10.1093/genetics/106.3.569. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Wilson S. R. Analyzing gene-frequency data when the effective population size is finite. Genetics. 1980 Jun;95(2):489–502. doi: 10.1093/genetics/95.2.489. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]