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Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Exam Question #6

 
This is an easy question. Here are the others: Exam Question #1, Exam Question #2, Exam Question #3, Exam Question #4, Exam Question #5.
To a first approximation, the rate of fixation of neutral alleles in a population is independent of effective population size. Why?


4 comments :

Tim said...

Because fixation of neutral alleles happens only via genetic drift?

Divalent said...

Because although the probability of fixation of a newly generated neutral allele is inversely proportional to the population size, the rate of generation of new neutral alleles is directly proportional to population size.

konrad said...

Because when you do the math it works out that way. Same as the reason that 7x6=42.

Psi Wavefunction said...

I thought it was proportional to 4Ne*u?
Though data do suggest that u generally scales inversely with Ne, so that may cancel out the effect of changing Ne?