A general method for the estimation of moments of substitution number in molecular evolution
Résumé
The random variable “substitution number” $N_{t}$, i.e. the number of mutations that have accumulated in a sequence under neutral evolution during a time $t$, is a cornerstone of the field of molecular evolution. We show here that both the short and long time limits of its moments can be computed from the substitution matrix used to model the neutral evolution by elementary means. The method developed here is also used to compute the moments of the complementary variable, $T_{n}$, the time it takes to accumulate $n$ mutations. The method we develop here necessitates only elementary operations on the substitution matrix and does not involve spectral decomposition.
Origine : Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s)