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Is F ST obsolete?

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Abstract

Since the introduction of allozyme methods inthe mid 1960s it has been a standard practiceto report Wright's measure of populationsubdivision, F ST, for surveys ofgenetic variation. Its widespread use hasprovided us with a sense of what values can beexpected in particular situations and how theycan be interpreted. With some theoreticaljustification, F ST has also beenused to estimate rates of gene flow. Howeverthere are conditions under which F STis inappropriate for gene flow estimation andcan lead to incorrect or even absurdconclusions. These pitfalls have promptedcritics to suggest that F ST hasfailed to deliver what its proponents havepromised and should be abandoned. A furtherchallenge has been the development of newmethods that offer even greater promise. Thusit is reasonable to ask if perhaps it is timeto retire F ST and turn to new andmore powerful methods for the inference of geneflow from genetic markers. Here I will arguethat although gene flow should be estimated bymore powerful approaches whenever practical,F ST remains a useful measure of theaverage effects of gene flow and will continueto be used for comparative purposes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Box 42451, Lafayette, Louisiana, 70504

    Joseph E. Neigel

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Neigel, J.E. Is F ST obsolete?. Conservation Genetics 3, 167–173 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015213626922

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