Gene frequency distributions as a test of selective neutrality.
The analysis of differences between loci in the variance of gene frequency over populations within a species has been suggested as a method of detecting natural selection. It is shown that, in the absence of selection, the expected variation over loci depends strongly on the pattern of relationships between populations. The effect of structure within a species is always to increase the variation and therefore to reduce the power of the method.
D005075:Biological Evolution; D005787:Gene Frequency; D014644:Genetic Variation; D008954:Models, Biological; D012641:Selection, Genetic