The evolution of genetic drift over 50,000 generations.

ABSTRACT: Random variation in reproductive success-genetic drift-profoundly shapes genetic diversity and evolutionary trajectories. The strength of drift depends on the variance in descendant number, , which governs key evolutionary outcomes: for instance, the establishment probability of a beneficial mutation scales inversely with . However, whether itself evolves over long timescales has remained unclear, because allele-frequency fluctuations depend on drift only through the effective population size, , which blends census population size with descendant-number variance. Here, we disentangle these components by using model-based Bayesian inference combined with joint tracking of (i) frequency fluctuations of neutrally barcoded lineages and (ii) census population sizes across growth cycles in the <

SUBMITTER: Ascensao JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12873942 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature