ALLELE FREQUENCIES IN MULTIGENE FAMILIES

Evolution in multigene families

We now know a lot about the dynamics of nucleotide substitutions within existing genes, but we’ve neglected one key component of molecular evolution. We haven’t talked about where new genes come from. It’s important to understand this phenomenon because, after all, new metabolic functions are likely to arise only when there are new genes that can perform them. It’s not likely that an existing g...

Allele Frequencies and Genotype Frequencies

Multigene Families: Evolution

Groups of genes showing similarity with each other are referred to as a gene family, arising from wholesale or partial gene duplication. The clustering of functionally related members of a gene family reflects their common ancestry and subsequent duplication and divergence. It has been speculated that gene duplication is essential for the creation of major evolutionary novelty. Genome projects ...

PCR Strategies for Complete Allele Calling in Multigene Families Using High-Throughput Sequencing Approaches

The characterization of multigene families with high copy number variation is often approached through PCR amplification with highly degenerate primers to account for all expected variants flanking the region of interest. Such an approach often introduces PCR biases that result in an unbalanced representation of targets in high-throughput sequencing libraries that eventually results in incomple...

Estimating Allele Frequencies and Inbreeding Coefficients in K-Allele Models

Some of the methods of estimation of allele frequencies and inbreeding coefficients in a K-allele model are examined. A result that has long been assumed to be true is proved. That is, in the presence of inbreeding, the maximum likelihood estimators of the allele frequencies and of the inbreeding coefficient f do not in general equal their observed (or sample) values (except when K 1⁄4 2). A le...