Distinguishing the Hitchhiking and Background Selection Models

Distinguishing the hitchhiking and background selection models.

A simple method to distinguish hitchhiking and background selection is proposed. It is based on the observation that these models make different predictions about the average level of nucleotide diversity in regions of low recombination. The method is applied to data from Drosophila melanogaster and two highly selfing tomato species.

Distinguishing the Hitchhiking and Background Selection Models in Tomatoes

Genetic hitchhiking versus background selection: the controversy and its implications.

The controversy on the relative importance of background selection (BGS; against deleterious mutations) and genetic hitchhiking (associated with positive directional selection) in explaining patterns of nucleotide variation in natural populations stimulated research activities for almost a decade. Despite efforts from many theorists and empiricists, fundamental questions are still open, in part...

On the relative roles of background selection and genetic hitchhiking in shaping human cytomegalovirus genetic diversity.

A central focus of population genetics has been examining the contribution of selective and neutral processes in shaping patterns of intraspecies diversity. In terms of selection specifically, surveys of higher organisms have shown considerable variation in the relative contributions of background selection and genetic hitchhiking in shaping the distribution of polymorphisms, although these ana...

Hitchhiking under positive Darwinian selection.

Positive selection can be inferred from its effect on linked neutral variation. In the restrictive case when there is no recombination, all linked variation is removed. If recombination is present but rare, both deterministic and stochastic models of positive selection show that linked variation hitchhikes to either low or high frequencies. While the frequency distribution of variation can be i...