Abstract
The variation in gene frequency among populations or between generations within a population is a result of breeding structure and selection. But breeding structure should affect all loci and alleles in the same way. If there is significant heterogeneity between loci in their apparent inbreeding coefficients F=sp2/p(1-p), this heterogeneity may be taken as evidence for selection. We have given the statistical properties of F and shown how tests of heterogeneity can be made. Using data from human populations we have shown highly significant heterogeneity in F values for human polymorphic genes over the world, thus demonstrating that a significant fraction of human polymorphisms owe their current gene frequencies to the action of natural selection. We have also applied the method to temporal variation within a population for data on Dacus oleae and have found no significant evidence of selection.
Full Text
The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (1.2 MB).
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Arends T., Brewer G., Chagnon N., Gallango M. L., Gershowitz H., Layrisse M., Neel J., Shreffler D., Tashian R., Weitkamp L. Intratribal genetic differentiation among the Yanomama Indians of southern Venezuela. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1967 May;57(5):1252–1259. doi: 10.1073/pnas.57.5.1252. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Cavalli-Sforza L. L. Population structure and human evolution. Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 1966 Mar 22;164(995):362–379. doi: 10.1098/rspb.1966.0038. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Gershowitz H., Layrisse M., Layrisse Z., Neel J. V., Chagnon N., Ayres M. The genetic structure of a tirbal population, the Vanomama Indians. II. Eleven blood-group systems and the ABH-Le secretor traits. Ann Hum Genet. 1972 Mar;35(3):261–269. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-1809.1957.tb01400.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Prakash S., Lewontin R. C., Hubby J. L. A molecular approach to the study of genic heterozygosity in natural populations. IV. Patterns of genic variation in central, marginal and isolated populations of Drosophila pseudoobscura. Genetics. 1969 Apr;61(4):841–858. doi: 10.1093/genetics/61.4.841. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Prout T. The estimation of fitnesses from population data. Genetics. 1969 Dec;63(4):949–967. doi: 10.1093/genetics/63.4.949. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]