Measwring and Testing Genetic Differentiation With Ordered Versus Unordered Alleles

Austin

1996

S. 1237-1245

Bandaufführung

133862

Spatial autocorrelation statistics are used for description of geographic variation of gene frequencies,
but the relationship of these indices with the parameters describing the genetic structure of populations
is not established. A simple relation is derived here between kinship coefficient and a measure of
spatial autocorrelation, Moranęs I . The autocorrelation coefficient of gene frequencies at a given
distance is a direct function of the kinship at that distance, and an inverse function of the standardized
gene frequency variance, Fst. Under isolation by distance, the expected values of Moranęs I for any
allele may be calculated by means of Malkcot-Morton function, which predicts an exponential decline
of genetic similarity in space. This allows comparison of observed gene frequency patterns with the
patterns that should be caused by interaction of short range migration and random genetic drift.