English

Muller's ratchet clicks in finite time

Probability 2014-09-22 v1

Abstract

We consider the accumulation of deleterious mutations in an asexual population, a phenomenon known as Muller's ratchet, using the continuous time model proposed in Etheridge et all. \cite{epw}. We show that for any parameter λ>0\lambda>0 (the rate at which mutations occur), for any α>0\alpha>0 (the toxicity of the mutations) and for any size N>0N>0 of the population, the ratchet clicks a.s. in finite time. That is to say the minimum number of deleterious mutations in the population goes to infinity a.s.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1303.2037,
  title  = {Muller's ratchet clicks in finite time},
  author = {Julien Audiffren and Etienne Pardoux},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1303.2037},
  year   = {2014}
}