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Can transposable element copy number distribution parameters be estimated from natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster ?
Author(s) -
Quesneville Hadi,
Katz Mariano,
Anxolabéhère Dominique
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
journal of evolutionary biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.289
H-Index - 128
eISSN - 1420-9101
pISSN - 1010-061X
DOI - 10.1046/j.1420-9101.1994.7010013.x
Subject(s) - transposition (logic) , biology , transposable element , drosophila melanogaster , population , distribution (mathematics) , genetics , natural selection , natural population growth , evolutionary biology , statistics , mathematics , genome , gene , demography , mathematical analysis , geometry , sociology
The copy frequency distribution of a transposable element family in a Drosophila melanogaster natural population is generally characterised by the values of the Charlesworths' model parameters α and β (Charlesworth & Charlesworth, 1983). The estimation of these parameters is made using the observed distribution of the occupied sites in a population sample. Several results have been interpreted as due either to the influence of stochastic factors or to deterministic factors (transposition, excision, selection…). The accuracy of this method was tested by estimations performed on samples from simulated populations. The results show that with the sample size usually used for natural population studies, the confidence intervals are too large to reasonably deduce either the element copy number distribution or the values of transposition and excision rate and selective coefficients.