<p>HUANG, SHU-PANG. ROBUST METHODS FOR ESTIMATING ALLELE FREQUENCIES (Advisor: Bruce S. Weir) The distribution of allele frequencies has beena major focus in population genetics. Classical approaches usingstochastic arguments depend highly on the choice of mutationmodel. Unfortunately, it is hard to justify which mutation modelis suitable for a particular sample. We propose two methods toestimate allele frequencies, especially for rare alleles, withoutassuming a mutation model. The first method achieves its goalthrough two steps. First it estimates the number of alleles in apopulation using a sample coverage method and then models rankedfrequencies for these alleles using the stretchedexponential/Weibull distribution. Simulation studies have shownthat both steps are robust to different mutation models. Thesecond method uses Bayesian approach to estimate both the numberof alleles and their frequencies simultaneously by assuming anon-informative prior distribution. The Bayesian approach is alsorobust to mutation models. Questions concerning the probability offinding a new allele, and the possible highest (or lowest)probability for a new-found allele can be answered by bothmethods. The advantages of our approaches include robustness tomutation model and ability to be easily extended to genotypic,haploid and protein structure data.<P>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NCSU/oai:NCSU:etd-20010614-213208 |
| Date | 21 June 2001 |
| Creators | Huang, Shu-Pang |
| Contributors | Bruce S. Weir, Dennis D. Boos, Jeffrey L. Thorne, Sujit K. Ghosh |
| Publisher | NCSU |
| Source Sets | North Carolina State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/theses/available/etd-20010614-213208 |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to NC State University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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