Inference of Population Structure Using Multilocus Genotype Data: Dominant Markers and Null Alleles

Overview

Journal Mol Ecol Notes

Specialty Biology

Date 2008 Sep 12

PMID 18784791

Citations 818

Authors

Daniel Falush

Matthew Stephens

Jonathan K Pritchard

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Dominant markers such as amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLPs) provide an economical way of surveying variation at many loci. However, the uncertainty about the underlying genotypes presents a problem for statistical analysis. Similarly, the presence of null alleles and the limitations of genotype calling in polyploids mean that many conventional analysis methods are invalid for many organisms. Here we present a simple approach for accounting for genotypic ambiguity in studies of population structure and apply it to AFLP data from whitefish. The approach is implemented in the program structure version 2.2, which is available from http://pritch.bsd.uchicago.edu/structure.html.

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