Shannon diversity index: a call to replace the original Shannon's formula with unbiased estimator in the population genetics studies.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The Shannon diversity index has been widely used in population genetics studies. Recently, it was proposed as a unifying measure of diversity at different levels-from genes and populations to whole species and ecosystems. The index, however, was proven to be negatively biased at small sample sizes. Modifications to the original Shannon's formula have been proposed to obtain an unbiased estimator.

Methods

In this study, the performance of four different estimators of Shannon index-the original Shannon's formula and those of Zahl, Chao and Shen and Chao et al.-was tested on simulated microsatellite data. Both the simulation and analysis of the results were performed in the R language environment. A new R function was created for the calculation of all four indices f

SUBMITTER: Konopinski MK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7331625 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature