population expansion
Schaffner SF, Foo C, Gabriel S, Reich D, Daly MJ & Altshuler D 2005 Calibrating a coalescent simulation of human genome sequence variation. Genome Res 15:1576-1583.
- it is now possible to calibrate population genetic models with genome-wide data, permitting for the first time the generation of data that are consistent with empirical data across a wide range of characteristics
- we present here the first such calibrated model and show hat, while still arbitrary, it successfully generates simulated data (for three populations) that closely resemble empirical data in allele frequency, linkage disequilibrium, and population differentiation
- no assertion is made about the accuracy of the proposed historical and recombination mode,
- its ability to generate realistic data meets a long-standing need among geneticists
- the justification for this kind of model, therefore, is not that it enables us to draw conclusions about human history
- there are, instead, two reasons for developing it
- the ability to produce realistic-looking data is itself useful, regardless of the historical accuracy of the underlying model
- the model is unlikely to reflect accurately the details of either demographic history or recombination
- it does represent one of the many models that is consistent with what is currently known about human genetics
- for many purposes it is better to have one model that is consistent with data than to have none
