Testing temporal changes in allele frequencies

What is it about?

Testing allele frequencies from samples taken at different times could help to study a number of evolutionary processes. However, such types of comparisons are usually performed with incorrect statistical tools (e.g. Fst). Here I present a Bayesian Monte-Carlo test and program which allow to test if temporal changes in allele frequencies depart from a null hypothesis of sampling error and gene drift.

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Why is it important?

All micro-evolutionary processes are presumed to produce changes in allele frequencies. In consequence it is fundamental to have tools for rejecting the hypothesis that such changes are due to pure sampling error but also to gene drift, a source of variation that is neglected in commonly used tests and which is necessary to be included in a null hypothesis.