A practical introduction to sequentially Markovian coalescent methods for estimating demographic history from genomic data.

ABSTRACT: A common goal of population genomics and molecular ecology is to reconstruct the demographic history of a species of interest. A pair of powerful tools based on the sequentially Markovian coalescent have been developed to infer past population sizes using genome sequences. These methods are most useful when sequences are available for only a limited number of genomes and when the aim is to study ancient demographic events. The results of these analyses can be difficult to interpret accurately, because doing so requires some understanding of their theoretical basis and of their sensitivity to confounding factors. In this practical review, we explain some of the key concepts underpinning the pairwise and multiple sequentially Markovian coalescent methods (PSMC and MSMC, respectively). We rel

SUBMITTER: Mather N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6972798 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature