Abstract

Abstract A new measure of the extent of population subdivision as inferred from allele frequencies at microsatellite loci is proposed and tested with computer simulations. This measure, called R(ST), is analogous to Wright's F(ST) in representing the proportion of variation between populations. It differs in taking explicit account of the mutation process at microsatellite loci, for which a generalized stepwise mutation model appears appropriate. Simulations of subdivided populations were carried out to test the performance of R(ST) and F(ST). It was found that, under the generalized stepwise mutation model, R(ST) provides relatively unbiased estimates of migration rates and times of population divergence while F(ST) tends to show too much population similarity, particularly when migration rates are low or divergence times are long [corrected].

Keywords

BiologyMicrosatelliteGeneticsAlleleSubdivisionAllele frequencyMeasure (data warehouse)PopulationPopulation geneticsEvolutionary biologyGeneDemographyGeographyComputer science

MeSH Terms

AllelesBiological EvolutionComputer SimulationDNASatelliteGene FrequencyModelsGeneticPopulation DynamicsStatistics as Topic

Affiliated Institutions

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Publication Info

Year
1995
Type
article
Volume
139
Issue
1
Pages
457-462
Citations
3698
Access
Closed

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3698
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Cite This

Montgomery Slatkin (1995). A measure of population subdivision based on microsatellite allele frequencies.. Genetics , 139 (1) , 457-462. https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/139.1.457

Identifiers

DOI
10.1093/genetics/139.1.457
PMID
7705646
PMCID
PMC1206343

Data Quality

Data completeness: 86%