A stochastic model for a single click of Muller's ratchet

D. Waxman (1) , L. Loewe (2)

1 University of Sussex
2 Edin. - University of Edinburgh

This work presents a new approach to Muller's ratchet, where Haigh's model is approximately mapped into a simpler model that describes the behaviour of a population after a click of the ratchet, i.e., after loss of what was the fittest class. This new model predicts the distribution of times to the next click of the ratchet and is equivalent to a Wright-Fisher model for a population of haploid asexual individuals with one locus and two alleles. Within this model, the fittest members of a population correspond to carriers of one allele, while all other individuals have suboptimal fitness and are represented as carriers of the other allele. In this way, all suboptimal fitness individuals are amalgamated into a single 'mutant' class.

Mots clés: Muller's ratchet; Random genetic drift; Asexual population; Theoretical population genetics

D. Waxman, L. Loewe. A stochastic model for a single click of Muller's ratchet. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 2010, 264 (4), pp.1120. ⟨10.1016/j.jtbi.2010.03.014⟩. ⟨hal-00594146⟩