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Information Theory and Population Genetics

Populations and Evolution 2012-06-11 v2 Information Theory math.IT

Abstract

The key findings of classical population genetics are derived using a framework based on information theory using the entropies of the allele frequency distribution as a basis. The common results for drift, mutation, selection, and gene flow will be rewritten both in terms of information theoretic measurements and used to draw the classic conclusions for balance conditions and common features of one locus dynamics. Linkage disequilibrium will also be discussed including the relationship between mutual information and r^2 and a simple model of hitchhiking.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1103.5625,
  title  = {Information Theory and Population Genetics},
  author = {Reginald D. Smith},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1103.5625},
  year   = {2012}
}

Comments

29 pages, 11 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-21T17:46:12.082Z