Heterozygosity (H) vs estimated Population Count (Log₁₀N_c) & Effective Population Size (N_eµ)

[Left] Observed Heterozygosity based on protein electrophoretic data increases with estimated population count N_c over the range H_obs = 0.01 ~ 0.25, as expected.

[Right] However, observed H_obs is considerably smaller than expected from theory, as H_e = N_eµ / (N_eµ + 1). For a mutation rate µ = 10^-7, the observed range H_obs = 0.056 ~ 0.185 [Y-axis] implies N_e = 148,000 ~ 567,000 [x-axis].

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Left-hand graph after Soulé in Ayala (1976); Text material © 2025 by Steven M. Carr

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