Bayesian estimation of the timing and severity of a population bottleneck from ancient DNA.

ABSTRACT: In this first application of the approximate Bayesian computation approach using the serial coalescent, we demonstrated the estimation of historical demographic parameters from ancient DNA. We estimated the timing and severity of a population bottleneck in an endemic subterranean rodent, Ctenomys sociabilis, over the last 10,000 y from two cave sites in northern Patagonia, Argentina. Understanding population bottlenecks is important in both conservation and evolutionary biology. Conservation implications include the maintenance of genetic variation, inbreeding, fixation of mildly deleterious alleles, and loss of adaptive potential. Evolutionary processes are impacted because of the influence of small populations in founder effects and speciation. We found a decrease from a female effective

SUBMITTER: Chan YL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1440876 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature