The similarity index and DNA fingerprinting.
DNA-fingerprint similarity is being used increasingly to make inferences about levels of genetic variation within and between natural populations. It is shown that the similarity index--the average fraction of shared restriction fragments--provides upwardly biased estimates of population homozygosity but nearly unbiased estimates of the average identity-in-state for random pairs of individuals. A method is suggested for partitioning the DNA-fingerprint dissimilarity into within- and between-population components. Some simple expressions are given for the sampling variances of these estimators.
Lynch
M
M
Department of Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene 97403.
D000483:Alleles; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting; D005819:Genetic Markers; D006720:Homozygote
D005819:Genetic Markers; D004247:DNA