TABLE 3.
Recommendations for sampling designs depending on study objectives.
| Estimate | Number of individuals | Number of loci | Number of populations | Considerations |
| HS | Not sensitive (> 6 individuals) | Sensitive (>1,000 SNP loci; > 15 microsatellite loci) | Sensitive (> 20 populations) | Increase the number of loci and populations. Genomic dataset is less sensitive than microsatellite dataset. |
| FIS | Very sensitive (>9 individuals) | Sensitive (>1,000 SNP loci; > 15 microsatellite loci) | Sensitive (> 20 populations) | Increase the number of individuals over loci and populations. If fewer populations are available, increase the number of individuals in those populations. |
| FST | Microsatellite dataset was very sensitive (> 20 individuals). 50K dataset: Not sensitive (>9 individuals) | Not very sensitive (>1,000 SNPs; > 15 loci) | Sensitive (> 20 populations) | Increase the number of populations over the number of SNPs or individuals. |
| IBD and IBE MRM tests | Not sensitive (> 3 individuals) | Not sensitive (>1,000 SNPs, > 15 loci) | Very sensitive (>20 populations) | Sample as many populations as possible even if fewer individuals or loci are sampled. |
| CAH tests | Not very sensitive (> 3 individuals for genomic datasets; > 6 individuals for microsatellite datasets) | Sensitive depending on the dataset (>1,000 DTS SNPs, > 100 50K SNPs, > 15 microsatellite loci) | Very sensitive (> 30 populations) | Increasing the number of populations is more important than increasing the number of loci or individuals. Microsatellites are more sensitive than genomic datasets to the number of loci and individuals, although less sensitive to the number of populations sampled. |
| Tests of selection using bayescenv | Not tested | Sensitive (as many as possible) | Very sensitive (>30–40 populations) | As many SNPs as possible are needed to differentiate outlier loci, also to increase the probability of finding loci within selective regions. Increase as much as possible the number of populations, covering the largest geographic and environmental distribution. A possibility is to use pooled-sample DNA. |
The numbers within parenthesis indicate how many individuals, populations, or loci should be sampled for different objectives according to our simulations.