Open AccessNearly unbiased estimator of contemporary N e / N based on kinship relationships
Author(s) -
Akita Tetsuya
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
ecology and evolution
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.17
H-Index - 63
ISSN - 2045-7758
DOI - 10.1002/ece3.6421
Subject(s) - estimator , statistics , kinship , census , effective population size , proxy (statistics) , context (archaeology) , ratio estimator , best linear unbiased prediction , sample size determination , sibling , population , cohort , mathematics , demography , econometrics , biology , computer science , bias of an estimator , sociology , genetic diversity , artificial intelligence , selection (genetic algorithm) , minimum variance unbiased estimator , anthropology , paleontology
This study develops a nearly unbiased estimator of the ratio of the contemporary effective mother size to the census size in a population, as a proxy of the ratio of contemporary effective size (or effective breeding size) to census size ( N e / N or N b / N ). The proposed estimator is based on both known mother–offspring (MO) and maternal‐sibling (MS) relationships observed within the same cohort, in which sampled individuals in the cohort probably share MO relationships with sampled mothers. The rationale is that the frequency of MO and MS pairs contains information regarding the contemporary effective mother size and the (mature) census size, respectively. Therefore, the estimator can be obtained only from genetic data. We also evaluate the performance of the estimator by running an individual‐based model. The results of this study provide the following: (a) parameter range for satisfying the unbiasedness, and (b) guidance for sample sizes to ensure the required accuracy and precision, especially when the order of the ratio is available. Furthermore, the results demonstrate the usefulness of a sibship assignment method for genetic monitoring, providing insights for interpreting environmental and/or anthropological factors fluctuating N e / N (or N b / N ), especially in the context of conservation biology and wildlife management.