title: Estimating the age of the common ancestor of a sample of DNA sequences.
abstract: We present a simple Monte Carlo method for estimating the age of the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of a sample of DNA sequences. We show that Templeton's (1993) estimator of the age of the MRCA based on the maximum number of nucleotide differences between two sequences in a sample is inaccurate, and we demonstrate the new method by reanalyzing a sample of DNA sequences from human Y chromosomes and a sample of human Alu sequences.
authors.affiliation: Human Genetics Center, School of Public Health, University of Texas at Houston 77225, USA. fu@hgc.sph.uth.tmc.edu
authors.forename: Y X
authors.initials: YX
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: W H
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005821:Genetic Techniques; D015186:Hominidae / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D013997:Time Factors; D014998:Y Chromosome / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D004247:DNA