scholarly journals Reconstructing the history of variation in effective population size along phylogenies

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathieu Brevet ◽  
Nicolas Lartillot
Keyword(s):  
Population Size ◽  
Effective Population Size ◽  
Shape Parameter ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Neutral Theory ◽  
Effective Population ◽  
Phylogenetic Structure ◽  
Frequency Spectra ◽  
Nearly Neutral Theory ◽  
History Of

AbstractThe nearly-neutral theory predicts specific relations between effective population size (Ne), and patterns of divergence and polymorphism, which depend on the shape of the distribution of fitness effects (DFE) of new mutations. However, testing these relations is not straightforward since Ne is difficult to estimate in practice. For that reason, indirect proxies for Ne have often been used to test the nearly-neutral theory, although with mixed results. Here, we introduce an integrative comparative framework allowing for an explicit reconstruction of the phylogenetic history of Ne, thus leading to a quantitative test of the nearly-neutral theory and an independent estimation of the shape parameter of the DFE. We applied our method to primates, for which the nearly-neutral predictions were mostly verified. Estimates of the shape parameter were compatible with independent measures based on site frequency spectra. The reconstructed history of Ne in primates seems consistent with current knowledge and shows a clear phylogenetic structure at the super-family level. Altogether, our integrative framework provides a quantitative assessment of the role of Ne in modulating patterns of genetic variation, while giving a synthetic picture of the long-term trends in Ne variation across a group of species.

scholarly journals Does effective population size affect rates of molecular evolution: mitochondrial data for host/parasite species pairs in bees suggests not

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nahid Shokri Bousjein ◽  
Simon Tierney ◽  
Michael Gardner ◽  
Michael Schwarz
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Evolution ◽  
Population Size ◽  
Effective Population Size ◽  
Parasite Species ◽  
Mitochondrial Protein ◽  
Neutral Theory ◽  
Mitochondrial Genes ◽  
Social Parasite ◽  
Effective Population ◽  
Rates Of Molecular Evolution

Adaptive evolutionary theory argues that organisms with larger effective population size (Ne) should have higher rates of adaptive evolution and therefore greater capacity to win evolutionary arm races. However, in some certain cases species with much smaller Ne may be able to survive beside their opponents for an extensive evolutionary time. Neutral theory predicts that accelerated rates of molecular evolution in organisms with exceedingly small Ne is due to the effects of genetic drift and fixation of slightly deleterious mutations. We test this prediction in two obligate social parasite species and their respective host species from the bee tribe Allodapini. The parasites (genus Inquilina) have been locked into a tight coevolutionary arm races with their exclusive hosts (genus Exoneura) for ~15 million years, even though Inquilina exhibit Ne that are an order of magnitude smaller than their host. In this study, we compared rates of molecular evolution between host and parasite using nonsynonymous to synonymous substitution rate ratios (dN/dS) of eleven mitochondrial protein coding genes sequenced from transcriptomes. Tests of selection on mitochondrial genes indicated no significant differences between host and parasite dN/dS, with evidence for purifying selection acting on all mitochondrial genes of host and parasite species. Several potential factors which could weaken the inverse relationship between Ne and rate of molecular evolution are discussed.

scholarly journals Recombination Gives a New Insight in the Effective Population Size and the History of the Old World Human Populations

2011 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Melé ◽  
Asif Javed ◽  
Marc Pybus ◽  
Pierre Zalloua ◽  
Marc Haber ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Population Size ◽  
Effective Population Size ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Effective Population ◽  
Old World ◽  
History Of

scholarly journals Effective Population Size Predicts Local Rates but Not Local Mitigation of Read-through Errors

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 244-262
Author(s):  
Alexander T Ho ◽  
Laurence D Hurst
Keyword(s):  
Population Size ◽  
Effective Population Size ◽  
Stop Codon ◽  
Neutral Theory ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Species Variation ◽  
Effective Population ◽  
Weak Selection ◽  
Error Mitigation ◽  
Good Proxy

Abstract In correctly predicting that selection efficiency is positively correlated with the effective population size (Ne), the nearly neutral theory provides a coherent understanding of between-species variation in numerous genomic parameters, including heritable error (germline mutation) rates. Does the same theory also explain variation in phenotypic error rates and in abundance of error mitigation mechanisms? Translational read-through provides a model to investigate both issues as it is common, mostly nonadaptive, and has good proxy for rate (TAA being the least leaky stop codon) and potential error mitigation via “fail-safe” 3′ additional stop codons (ASCs). Prior theory of translational read-through has suggested that when population sizes are high, weak selection for local mitigation can be effective thus predicting a positive correlation between ASC enrichment and Ne. Contra to prediction, we find that ASC enrichment is not correlated with Ne. ASC enrichment, although highly phylogenetically patchy, is, however, more common both in unicellular species and in genes expressed in unicellular modes in multicellular species. By contrast, Ne does positively correlate with TAA enrichment. These results imply that local phenotypic error rates, not local mitigation rates, are consistent with a drift barrier/nearly neutral model.

scholarly journals Introgression makes waves in inferred histories of effective population size

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Hawks
Keyword(s):  
Gene Flow ◽  
Population Size ◽  
Effective Population Size ◽  
Population History ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Effective Population ◽  
History Of ◽  
Or Gene ◽  
Time Of Origin ◽  
Past Population

AbstractHuman populations have a complex history of introgression and of changing population size. Human genetic variation has been affected by both these processes, so that inference of past population size depends upon the pattern of gene flow and introgression among past populations. One remarkable aspect of human population history as inferred from genetics is a consistent “wave” of larger effective population size, prior to the bottlenecks and expansions of the last 100,000 years. Here I carry out a series of simulations to investigate how introgression and gene flow from genetically divergent ancestral populations affect the inference of ancestral effective population size. Both introgression and gene flow from an extinct, genetically divergent population consistently produce a wave in the history of inferred effective population size. The time and amplitude of the wave reflect the time of origin of the genetically divergent ancestral populations and the strength of introgression or gene flow. These results demonstrate that even small fractions of introgression or gene flow from ancient populations may have large effects on the inference of effective population size.

The Genetic Effective Size of a Population

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce Walsh ◽  
Michael Lynch
Keyword(s):  
Population Size ◽  
Effective Population Size ◽  
Genome Structure ◽  
Population Subdivision ◽  
Effective Population ◽  
Entire Genome ◽  
History Of ◽  
A Site ◽  
The Hill ◽  
New Mutations

The effects of genetic drift usually assume an idealized population of constant size. This chapter shows how the population size for such an idealized population can be replaced with an effective population size for populations with age structure, unequal sex ratios, a history of expansion or contraction, inbreeding, and population subdivision. These demographic features impact the entire genome more or less equally. A relatively recent understanding is that selection at a site can dramatically reduce the local effective population size experienced by nearby linked sites (the Hill-Robertson effect). This can arise from background selection to remove deleterious new mutations or from selective sweeps wherein favorable new mutations are driven toward fixation. The Hill-Robertson effect is a general way to describe the fact that selection at a site makes selection are other linked sites less efficient, and, therefore, more neutral. This chapter discusses the implications of this finding for genome structure.

scholarly journals Nuclear Gene Genealogies Reveal Historical, Demographic and Selective Factors Associated With Speciation in Field Crickets

Genetics ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 163 (4) ◽  
pp. 1389-1401 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard E Broughton ◽  
Richard G Harrison
Keyword(s):  
Population Size ◽  
Effective Population Size ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Nuclear Gene ◽  
Distinct Species ◽  
Effective Population ◽  
Ancestral Polymorphisms ◽  
History Of ◽  
Selective Forces ◽  
Shared Polymorphism

Abstract Population genetics theory predicts that genetic drift should eliminate shared polymorphism, leading to monophyly or exclusivity of populations, when the elapsed time between lineage-splitting events is large relative to effective population size. We examined patterns of nucleotide variation in introns at four nuclear loci to relate processes affecting the history of genes to patterns of divergence among natural populations and species. Ancestral polymorphisms were shared among three recognized species, Gryllus firmus, G. pennsylvanicus, and G. ovisopis, and genealogical patterns suggest that successive speciation events occurred recently and rapidly relative to effective population size. High levels of shared polymorphism among these morphologically, behaviorally, and ecologically distinct species indicate that only a small fraction of the genome needs to become differentiated for speciation to occur. Among the four nuclear gene loci there was a 10-fold range in nucleotide diversity, and patterns of polymorphism and divergence suggest that natural selection has acted to maintain or eliminate variation at some loci. While nuclear gene genealogies may have limited applications in phylogeography or other approaches dependent on population monophyly, they provide important insights into the historical, demographic, and selective forces that shape speciation.

scholarly journals Transition densities and sample frequency spectra of diffusion processes with selection and variable population size

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Zivkovic ◽  
Matthias Steinrücken ◽  
Yun S. Song ◽  
Wolfgang Stephan
Keyword(s):  
Population Size ◽  
Effective Population Size ◽  
Diffusion Processes ◽  
Transition Density ◽  
Effective Population ◽  
Frequency Spectra ◽  
Transition Densities ◽  
Population Sizes ◽  
Sample Frequency ◽  
The Impact

Advances in empirical population genetics have made apparent the need for models that simultaneously account for selection and demography. To address this need, we here study the Wright-Fisher diffusion under selection and variable effective population size. In the case of genic selection and piecewise-constant effective population sizes, we obtain the transition density function by extending a recently developed method for computing an accurate spectral representation for a constant population size. Utilizing this extension, we show how to compute the sample frequency spectrum (SFS) in the presence of genic selection and an arbitrary number of instantaneous changes in the effective population size. We also develop an alternate, efficient algorithm for computing the SFS using a method of moments. We apply these methods to answer the following questions: If neutrality is incorrectly assumed when there is selection, what effects does it have on demographic parameter estimation? Can the impact of negative selection be observed in populations that undergo strong exponential growth?

scholarly journals Background selection theory overestimates effective population size for high mutation rates

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph D Matheson ◽  
Joanna Masel
Keyword(s):  
Population Size ◽  
Effective Population Size ◽  
Deleterious Mutation ◽  
Neutral Theory ◽  
Mutation Rates ◽  
Background Selection ◽  
Effective Population ◽  
Selection Theory ◽  
Linkage Disequilibria ◽  
Genome Wide

Simple models from the neutral theory of molecular evolution are claimed to be flexible enough to incorporate the complex effects of background selection against linked deleterious mutations. Complexities are collapsed into an "effective" population size that specifies neutral genetic diversity. To achieve this, current background selection theory assumes linkage equilibrium among deleterious variants. Data do not support this assumption, nor do theoretical considerations when the genome-wide deleterious mutation is realistically high. We simulate genomes evolving under background selection, allowing the emergence of linkage disequilibria. With realistically high deleterious mutation rates, neutral diversity is much lower than predicted from previous analytical theory.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document