Estimation of migration rates and population sizes in geographically structured populations

The estimation of population parameters from genetic data can help reveal p ast migration patterns or past population sizes. The transformation of raw genetic data into population parameters requires a model which should refle ct the true relationships between subpopulations. Often the models are over ly simplified and do not allow, for example, for differences in population sizes and migration rates. I stress here the point that it is important to consider possible asymmetries in migration rates and differences in populat ion sizes. Very recently, several estimators based on the direct use of all ele frequencies and based on coalescence theory have been developed. All th ese outperform migration rate estimators based on F-ST.