- THIS ARTICLE
- Full Text (PDF)
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me if a correction is posted
- SERVICES
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Alert me to new issues of the journal
- Download to citation manager
- Reprints & Permissions
- CITING ARTICLES
- Citing Articles via HighWire
- Citing Articles via Google Scholar
- GOOGLE SCHOLAR
- Articles by Li, W.-H.
- Articles by Nei, M.
- Search for Related Content
- PUBMED
- PubMed Citation
- Articles by Li, W.-H.
- Articles by Nei, M.
PERSISTENCE OF COMMON ALLELES IN TWO RELATED POPULATIONS OR SPECIES
Wen-Hsiung Li 1 and Masatoshi Nei 1
1 Center for Demographic and Population Genetics, University
of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas 77025
Mathematical studies are conducted on three problems that arise in molecular population genetics. (1) The time required for a particular allele to become extinct in a population under the effects of mutation, selection, and random genetic drift is studied. In the absence of selection, the mean extinction time of an allele with an initial frequency close to 1 is of the order of the reciprocal of the mutation rate when 4Nv << 1, where N is the effective population size and v is the mutation rate per generation. Advantageous mutations reduce the extinction time considerably, whereas deleterious mutations increase it tremendously even if the effect on fitness is very slight. (2) Mathematical formulae are derived for the distribution and the moments of extinction time of a particular allele from one or both of two related populations or species under the assumption of no selection. When 4Nv << 1, the mean extinction time is about half that for a single population, if the two populations are descended from a common original stock. (3) The expected number as well as the proportion of common neutral alleles shared by two related species at the tth generation after their separation are studied. It is shown that if 4Nv is small, the two species are expected to share a high proportion of common alleles even 4N generations after separation. In addition to the above mathematical studies, the implications of our results for the common alleles at protein loci in related Drosophila species and for the degeneration of unused characters in cave animals are discussed.
Submitted on January 8, 1977Revised on April 26, 1977
This article has been cited by other articles:
 |
|
 |
|
  M. Nei Selectionism and Neutralism in Molecular Evolution Mol. Biol. Evol., December 1, 2005; 22(12): 2318 - 2342. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 D. A. Merriwether, J. A. Hodgson, F. R. Friedlaender, R. Allaby, S. Cerchio, G. Koki, and J. S. Friedlaender Ancient mitochondrial M haplogroups identified in the Southwest Pacific PNAS, September 13, 2005; 102(37): 13034 - 13039. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
T. Itoh, W. Martin, and M. Nei Acceleration of genomic evolution caused by enhanced mutation rate in endocellular symbionts PNAS, October 1, 2002; 99(20): 12944 - 12948. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 B. F. McAllister and G. A. T. McVean Neutral Evolution of the Sex-Determining Gene transformer in Drosophila Genetics, April 1, 2000; 154(4): 1711 - 1720. [Abstract] [Full Text]
|
|