The variance of pairwise nucleotide differences in two populations with migration (Q1914176)

Understanding the demographic history of natural populations is of fundamental significance in population genetics. The multitudes of DNA sequence data currently being collected offer the hope of accurately quantifying important genetic and demographic parameters. Of particular interest are samples of multiple DNA sequences from single species, e.g., \textit{S. V. Edwards} [Proc. R. Soc. Lond., Ser. B 252, 177-185 (1993)], since the numbers of nucleotide differences and the genealogies of sequences contain information about population genetic history. This paper is concerned with the effects that population subdivision and migration have on the variance of pairwise nucleotide differences. The model of population subdivision considered here is a two-population version of the finite-island model [see \textit{M. Kimura} and \textit{G. H. Weiss}, Genetics 49, 561-576 (1964); \textit{T. Maruyama}, Theor. Popul. Biol. 1, 273-306 (1970; Zbl 0255.92006)]. While this model is an over-simplification of the demography of most natural populations, it does provide a starting-point from which we can draw initial conclusions.