Statistical methods and electroforetic technique used in the determination of protein and DNA polymorhism

A large amount of genetic variation can be maintained in natural populations. In order to understand the mechanism of genetic variation or DNA polymorhism, we must primarily estimate the amount of genetic variation. The amount of polymorhism is determined by many factors such as mutation, natural selection, population size, population structure, migration, random genetic drift, etc. In this study, two measures for estimating the amount of DNA polymorhism have been examined. These measures are the average number of pairwise nucleotide differences and the number of segregating sites among a sample of DNA sequences. The neutral mutation-random drift hypothesis (The Neutral Theory) has been tested using these two measures. The neutral mutation hypothesis means that a mutation may occure in any site of DNA sequence independently from another mutation. The expectation of the amount of DNA polymorhism has been studied under several models including population subdivision change in population size and natural selection. Key Words: Polymorhism, DNA Polymorhism, Neutral Mutation II