title: The effect of mating structure and progeny distribution on heterozygosity versus the number of alleles as measures of variation.
abstract: Heterozygosity and the number of alleles are both measures of the genetic variation of a population. They are qualitatively similar if the distribution of the number of progeny is Poisson, but not necessarily for other distributions. In particular, selfing decreases heterozygosity and also decreases the number of alleles when the progeny distribution is Poisson, but decreases heterozygosity and increases the number of alleles when there are two progeny per individual. This is because heterozygosity is closely related to the breeding structure (inbreeding) of the population, whereas the number of alleles is more influenced by the variation of the sampling process. Branching processes are employed to model the dynamics of mutant alleles, with drift and subsequent mutation contributing to extinction. In populations of four individuals, double first cousin mating has greater heterozygosity, but fewer alleles, than half-sib mating.
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D000818:Animals; D001947:Breeding; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006579:Heterozygote; D016012:Poisson Distribution