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. 2003 Sep 2;100(18):10335-40.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.1833064100. Epub 2003 Aug 18.

Estimating the distribution of fitness effects from DNA sequence data: implications for the molecular clock

Gwenaël Piganeau  1 , Adam Eyre-Walker
Affiliations

Estimating the distribution of fitness effects from DNA sequence data: implications for the molecular clock

Gwenaël Piganeau et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .

Abstract

We present a method for estimating the distribution of fitness effects of new amino acid mutations when those mutations can be assumed to be slightly advantageous, slightly deleterious, or strongly deleterious. We apply the method to mitochondrial data from several different species. In the majority of the data sets, the shape of the distribution is approximately exponential. Our results provide an estimate of the distribution of fitness effects of weakly selected mutations and provide a possible explanation for why the molecular clock is fairly constant across taxa and time.

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Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Some examples of partially reflected gamma distributions. The probability density is plotted as a function of S, the strength of selection. The curves in descending order of leptokurtosis are for shape parameters of 0.5, 1, and 2. Each distribution has a mean value of 1.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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