English

Genealogies in bistable waves

Probability 2020-09-09 v1

Abstract

We study a model of selection acting on a diploid population (one in which each individual carries two copies of each gene) living in one spatial dimension. We suppose a particular gene appears in two forms (alleles) AA and aa, and that individuals carrying AAAA have a higher fitness than aaaa individuals, while AaAa individuals have a lower fitness than both AAAA and aaaa individuals. The proportion of advantageous AA alleles expands through the population approximately according to a travelling wave. We prove that on a suitable timescale, the genealogy of a sample of AA alleles taken from near the wavefront converges to a Kingman coalescent as the population density goes to infinity. This contrasts with the case of directional selection in which the corresponding limit is thought to be the Bolthausen-Sznitman coalescent. The proof uses 'tracer dynamics'.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2009.03841,
  title  = {Genealogies in bistable waves},
  author = {Alison Etheridge and Sarah Penington},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2009.03841},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

89 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-23T18:23:46.133Z