Figure 5.—
Variance ratio (Varpooled/Varstandard) of the bias-corrected version of Watterson's θ and Tajima's π depending on the pool size n. We consider pooling both without [minor allele frequency (MAF) ≥ 1] and with a protection (MAF ≥ 2, MAF ≥ 3) against sequencing errors. (Only segregating sites with MAF above the stated threshold are included.) The horizontal green line denotes the break-even ratio of 1, where both the pooled and the classical experiment leads to estimates with equal variances. Pooling always performs better, as soon as the size of the pool exceeds the number of separately sequenced individuals. Solid black line, λ = 30; red dashed line, λ = 5. Standard setup is shown with k = 10 individuals sequenced separately.