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Updated: Feb 13, 2026
10:17
An Allele-specific Gene Expression Assay to Test the Functional Basis of Genetic Associations
Published on: November 3, 2010
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Null Alleles and FIS × FST Correlations
1Northwest Fisheries Science Center, Seattle.
The Journal of Heredity
|March 20, 2018
Summary
Null alleles can significantly impact population genetics analyses. This study shows that while null alleles increase inbreeding coefficients (FIS) and affect genetic differentiation (FST), correlations between FIS and FST remain detectable, especially at higher FST values.
Area of Science:
- Population Genetics
- Evolutionary Biology
- Molecular Ecology
Background:
- The Wahlund effect predicts a positive correlation between single-locus inbreeding coefficients (FIS) and population differentiation (FST) in mixed populations.
- Previous studies have not fully addressed the impact of null alleles on FIS-FST correlations using unbiased FST estimates.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effects of null alleles on the correlation between FIS and FST under the Wahlund effect using unbiased FST estimation.
- To fill the information gap concerning scenarios with null alleles and unbiased FST estimates.
Main Methods:
- Simulations were employed to model population genetic scenarios.
- Alleles were converted to nulls to assess their impact on heterozygosity, FIS, and FST.
- Correlations between FIS and FST, and between linkage disequilibrium (r2) and FST products, were analyzed.
Main Results:
- Introducing approximately 10% null alleles substantially reduced heterozygosity and increased FIS.
- Null alleles moderately increased FST at most loci.
- Null alleles generally weakened FIS-FST correlations, but the relationship remained strong for FST ≥ 0.06.
- Null alleles had minimal impact on correlations involving linkage disequilibrium (r2).
Conclusions:
- Caution is advised when interpreting FIS-FST correlations in populations with common null alleles.
- Two-locus analyses may offer more robust assessments of Wahlund effects in the presence of null alleles.
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