scholarly journals A generalized approach for estimating effective population size from temporal changes in allele frequency.

Genetics ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 121 (2) ◽  
pp. 379-391 ◽  
Author(s):  
R S Waples

Abstract The temporal method for estimating effective population size (Ne) 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 Ne 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 Ne 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 Ne computed using a chi 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.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Qin

When it comes to estimating the magnitude of genetic drift, there is hardly any indexes other than the effective population size. Starting from the binomial sampling distribution, this research proposed using mean deviation of allele frequency change as a direct measurement of drift, then tested it in a classical example concerning unequal breeding sex ratio. This study found that: (1) mean deviation offers a new dimension in measuring the magnitude of drift; (2) the measurement displays a half-half pattern; (3) allele frequency determines the efficacy of hitchhiking effect of rare alleles, and in what way that half-half pattern should be divided.



Genetics ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 139 (2) ◽  
pp. 1077-1090 ◽  
Author(s):  
P E Jorde ◽  
N Ryman

Abstract In this paper we study the process of allele frequency change in finite populations with overlapping generations with the purpose of evaluating the possibility of estimating the effective size from observations of temporal frequency shifts of selectively neutral alleles. Focusing on allele frequency changes between successive cohorts (individuals born in particular years), we show that such changes are not determined by the effective population size alone, as they are when generations are discrete. Rather, in populations with overlapping generations, the amount of temporal allele frequency change is dependent on the age-specific survival and birth rates. Taking this phenomenon into account, we present an estimator for effective size that can be applied to populations with overlapping generations.



Genetics ◽  
1983 ◽  
Vol 104 (3) ◽  
pp. 531-548
Author(s):  
Edward Pollak

ABSTRACT A new procedure is proposed for estimating the effective population size, given that information is available on changes in frequencies of the alleles at one or more independently segregating loci and the population is observed at two or more separate times. Approximate expressions are obtained for the variances of the new statistic, as well as others, also based on allele frequency changes, that have been discussed in the literature. This analysis indicates that the new statistic will generally have a smaller variance than the others. Estimates of effective population sizes and of the standard errors of the estimates are computed for data on two fly populations that have been discussed in earlier papers. In both cases, there is evidence that the effective population size is very much smaller than the minimum census size of the population.



Genetics ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 204 (2) ◽  
pp. 723-735 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Jonas ◽  
T. Taus ◽  
C. Kosiol ◽  
C. Schlotterer ◽  
A. Futschik


BMC Genetics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sankar Subramanian

Abstract Background It is well known that the effective size of a population (Ne) is one of the major determinants of the amount of genetic variation within the population. However, it is unclear whether the types of genetic variations are also dictated by the effective population size. To examine this, we obtained whole genome data from over 100 populations of the world and investigated the patterns of mutational changes. Results Our results revealed that for low frequency variants, the ratio of AT→GC to GC→AT variants (β) was similar across populations, suggesting the similarity of the pattern of mutation in various populations. However, for high frequency variants, β showed a positive correlation with the effective population size of the populations. This suggests a much higher proportion of high frequency AT→GC variants in large populations (e.g. Africans) compared to those with small population sizes (e.g. Asians). These results imply that the substitution patterns vary significantly between populations. These findings could be explained by the effect of GC-biased gene conversion (gBGC), which favors the fixation of G/C over A/T variants in populations. In large population, gBGC causes high β. However, in small populations, genetic drift reduces the effect of gBGC resulting in reduced β. This was further confirmed by a positive relationship between Ne and β for homozygous variants. Conclusions Our results highlight the huge variation in the types of homozygous and high frequency polymorphisms between world populations. We observed the same pattern for deleterious variants, implying that the homozygous polymorphisms associated with recessive genetic diseases will be more enriched with G or C in populations with large Ne (e.g. Africans) than in populations with small Ne (e.g. Europeans).



2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ágnes Jónás ◽  
Thomas Taus ◽  
Carolin Kosiol ◽  
Christian Schlötterer ◽  
Andreas Futschik

AbstractThe effective population size (Ne) is a major factor determining allele frequency changes in natural and experimental populations. Temporal methods provide a powerful and simple approach to estimate short-term Ne. They use allele frequency shifts between temporal samples to calculate the standardized variance, which is directly related to Ne. Here we focus on experimental evolution studies that often rely on repeated sequencing of samples in pools (Pool-Seq). Pool-Seq is cost-effective and outperforms individual-based sequencing in estimating allele frequencies, but it is associated with atypical sampling properties: additional to sampling individuals, sequencing DNA in pools leads to a second round of sampling increasing the estimated allele frequency variance. We propose a new estimator of Ne, which relies on allele frequency changes in temporal data and corrects for the variance in both sampling steps. In simulations, we obtain accurate Ne estimates, as long as the drift variance is not too small compared to the sampling and sequencing variance. In addition to genome-wide Ne estimates, we extend our method using a recursive partitioning approach to estimate Ne locally along the chromosome. Since type I error is accounted for, our method permits the identification of genomic regions that differ significantly in Ne. We present an application to Pool-Seq data from experimental evolution with Drosophila, and provide recommendations for whole-genome data. The estimator is computationally efficient and available as an R-package at https://github.com/ThomasTaus/Nest.



2013 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 518-526
Author(s):  
M. Khaldari ◽  
A. N. Javaremi ◽  
A. Pakdel ◽  
H. M. Yeganeh ◽  
P. Berg

Abstract. Preservation of genetic diversity in populations is an important task to ensure a possible longterm response to selection in animal breeding. The purpose of this study was to consider how pedigree analysis and gene dropping method could be used for management plans in order to maintain genetic variation in a population under selection of Japanese quail. Therefore, the distributions of alleles frequencies originated from founders were estimated on an actual pedigree using gene dropping simulation software. Then, genetic contribution of founders to the current population, components such as the F-statistics and effective population size were estimated. The results show that from 156 founders there are only 64 of them (22 males and 42 females) in the last generation. The average genetic contribution of a founder male and female contributing to the last generation were 1.87 and 1.40 %, respectively. A total of 87 and 95 % of the genome in the last generation were constituted by 34 and 42 founders, respectively. The effective population size decreased as inbreeding increases. The allele frequency averaged over replicates agreed with the genetic contribution. Some useful information regarding the management of genetic diversity such as the probability of allele extinction, the probability of alleles surviving at a critically low frequency and risk of future allele extinction were derived by using these distributions. Results show that pedigree analysis and gene dropping are valuable tools in optimizing decisions to preserve genetic variability.



Genetics ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 162 (4) ◽  
pp. 2017-2024 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Eyre-Walker

Abstract Artifactual evidence of adaptive amino acid substitution can be generated within a McDonald-Kreitman test if some amino acid mutations are slightly deleterious and there has been an increase in effective population size. Here I investigate the conditions under which this occurs. I show that fairly small increases in effective population size can generate artifactual evidence of positive selection if there is no selection upon synonymous codon use. This problem is exacerbated by the removal of low-frequency polymorphisms. However, selection on synonymous codon use restricts the conditions under which artifactual evidence of adaptive evolution is produced.



Animals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 1034
Author(s):  
Maria Chiara Fabbri ◽  
Christos Dadousis ◽  
Riccardo Bozzi

The objective was to investigate the pattern of linkage disequilibrium (LD) in three local beef breeds, namely, Calvana (n = 174), Mucca Pisana (n = 270), and Pontremolese (n = 44). As a control group, samples of the Italian Limousin breed (n = 100) were used. All cattle were genotyped with the GeneSeek GGP-LDv4 33k SNP chip containing 30,111 SNPs. The genotype quality control for each breed was conducted separately, and SNPs with call rate < 0.95 and minor allele frequency (MAF) > 1% were used for the analysis. LD extent was estimated in PLINK v1.9 using the squared correlation between pairs of loci (r2) across autosomes. Moreover, r2 values were used to calculate historical and contemporary effective population size (Ne) in each breed. Average r2 was similar in Calvana and Mucca Pisana (~0.14) and higher in Pontremolese (0.17); Limousin presented the lowest LD extent (0.07). LD up to 0.11–0.15 was persistent in the local breeds up to 0.75 Mbp, while in Limousin, it showed a more rapid decay. Variation of different LD levels across autosomes was observed in all the breeds. The results demonstrated a rapid decrease in Ne across generations for local breeds, and the contemporary population size observed in the local breeds, ranging from 41.7 in Calvana to 17 in Pontremolese, underlined the demographic alarming situation.



2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy D Lange ◽  
Heloise Bastide ◽  
Justin B Lack ◽  
John E Pool

Population genetics seeks to illuminate the forces shaping genetic variation, often based on a single snapshot of genomic variation. However, utilizing multiple sampling times to study changes in allele frequencies can help clarify the relative roles of neutral and non-neutral forces on short time scales. This study compares whole-genome sequence variation of recently collected natural population samples of Drosophila melanogaster against a collection made approximately 35 years prior from the same locality - encompassing roughly 500 generations of evolution. The allele frequency changes between these time points would suggest a relatively small local effective population size on the order of 10,000, significantly smaller than the global effective population size of the species. Some loci display stronger allele frequency changes than would be expected anywhere in the genome under neutrality - most notably the tandem paralogs Cyp6a17 and Cyp6a23, which are impacted by structural variation associated with resistance to pyrethroid insecticides. We find a genome-wide excess of outliers for high genetic differentiation between old and new samples, but a larger number of adaptation targets may have affected SNP-level differentiation versus window differentiation. We also find evidence for strengthening latitudinal allele frequency clines: northern-associated alleles have increased in frequency by an average of nearly 2.5% at SNPs previously identified as clinal outliers, but no such pattern is observed at random SNPs. This project underscores the scientific potential of using multiple sampling time points to investigate how evolution operates in natural populations, by quantifying how genetic variation has changed over ecologically relevant timescales.



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