STATISTICAL TESTS OF NEUTRALITY IN THE AGE OF WEAK SELECTION

Why review statistical tests of neutrality at a time when pan-selectio nists and pan-neutralists alike seem to have been replaced by weak sel ectionists? First, we still don't actually know how variation is maint ained at the molecular level; and second, tests of neutrality have a u tility for evolutionary biologists beyond the neutralist/selectionist debate. New tests and variations on the existing tests are arising pra ctically every month. From the complementary viewpoints of an empirici st and a theoretician, we sample the recent literature on tests of sta tistical neutrality and discuss the motivations, applications, assumpt ions, interpretations and future directions of these tests.