An approach to the coalescent, the fractional coalescent (f-coalescent), is introduced. The derivation is based on the discrete-time Cannings population model in which the variance of the number of offspring depends on the parameter α. This additional parameter α affects the variability of the patterns of the waiting times; values of lead to an increase of short time intervals, but occasionally allow for very long time intervals. When , the f-coalescent and the Kingman’s n-coalescent are equivalent. The distribution of the time to the most recent common ancestor and the probability that n genes descend from m ancestral genes in a time interval of length T for the f-coalescent are derived. The f-coalescent has been implemented in the population genetic model inference software Migrate. Simulation studies suggest that it is possible to accurately estimate α values from data that were generated with known α values and that the f-coalescent can detect potential environmental heterogeneity within a population. Bayes factor comparisons of simulated data with and real data (H1N1 influenza and malaria parasites) showed an improved model fit of the f-coalescent over the n-coalescent. The development of the f-coalescent and its inclusion into the inference program Migratefacilitates testing for deviations from the n-coalescent.
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Collocation methods for integral fractional Laplacian and fractional PDEs based on radial basis functions
- Award ID(s):
- 2012011
- PAR ID:
- 10494568
- Publisher / Repository:
- Elsevier
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Applied Mathematics and Computation
- Volume:
- 469
- Issue:
- C
- ISSN:
- 0096-3003
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 128548
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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