ON THE THEORY OF PARTIALLY INBREEDING FINITE POPULATIONS - V - THE EFFECTIVE SIZE OF A PARTIALLY SELFING AGE-STRUCTURED POPULATION

Consider a large population, with the same age distribution at times 0 , 1, 2,..., in which there is reproduction by selfing with probability beta and by random mating with probability 1 - beta. An individual be tween i and i + 1 units of age at time t is said to be in age group i at that time. Let L be the mean, among copies of an allele A in genoty pes of offspring in age group 0, of ages of parents when the inbreedin g coefficient has attained an equilibrium value. Then if there is no s election and allele A is originally present in one heterozygote, the p robability that it is ultimately fixed is 1/(2N(0)L), where N-0 is the number of individuals in age group 0 at any time. The effective popul ation size can then be derived. It turns out to be the same as for a p opulation with discrete generations having the same mean and variance of the number of successful gametes produced during a lifetime and the same number of individuals entering the population per generation. (C ) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.