The nk model of fitness interactions is examined. This model has been used by previous authors to investigate the effects of fitness epistasis on substitution dynamics in molecular evolution, and to make broader claims about the importance of epistasis. To examine these claims, an infinite-allele approximation is introduced. In this limit, it is shown that the nk model is, at an appropriate level of description, formally identical to the non-epistatic House-of-Cards model—a well-studied model in theoretical population genetics. It is further shown that in many parameter regimes, the analytical results obtained from this infinite-allele approximation are very close to results from the full nk model (with a finite number of alleles per locus). The findings presented shed light on a number of previous results.
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13711(2007)in: "Population Structure and Artificial Evolution".
J. Burczyk, W. Adams, D. Birkes, and I. Chybicki. Genetics, 173 (1):
363-372(2006)Outlines doing ML on a model of pollen & seed dispersal. No explicit adjustment for differential fecundities, although the model is very general. Interested in demonstrating local selective differences..
S. Winitzki. Computational Science and Its Applications — ICCSA 2003, volume 2667 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg, (2003)