Consider a population with an effective size of 4,000 and 32 segregating alleles. On average, how many generations would it take for all 32 alleles to coalesce to a single, ancestral allele?
A) 32
B) 128
C) 1,000
D) 16,000

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The expected time to coalescence can be calculated using the formula T= 4Ne(1-1/2+1/3-1/4+...+1/n-1) (where T= time to coalescence, Ne= effective population size, and n= number of alleles). For 32 alleles, this simplifies to T= 4,000(1-1/2+1/3-1/4+...+1/31), which equals approximately 16,000 generations. Therefore, the correct answer is D) 16,000.

Consider a Population with an Effective Size of 4,000 and 32