On the importance of being structured: instantaneous coalescence rates and human evolution--lessons for ancestral population size inference?

ABSTRACT: Most species are structured and influenced by processes that either increased or reduced gene flow between populations. However, most population genetic inference methods assume panmixia and reconstruct a history characterized by population size changes. This is potentially problematic as population structure can generate spurious signals of population size change through time. Moreover, when the model assumed for demographic inference is misspecified, genomic data will likely increase the precision of misleading if not meaningless parameters. For instance, if data were generated under an n-island model (characterized by the number of islands and migrants exchanged) inference based on a model of population size change would produce precise estimates of a bottleneck that would be meaningles

SUBMITTER: Mazet O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4806692 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature