Neutrality tests of highly polymorphic restriction-fragment-length polymorphisms.

Abstract The allele frequency data of Baird et al. were tested using Ewens-Watterson sampling theory for goodness of fit to the infinite-alleles model of neutral evolution. Although probes of both the HRAS-1 and D14S1 loci identify highly diverse restriction-fragment-length polymorphisms, the observed values of gene identity (F) and the common allele frequency (C) are not significantly different from the neutral expectation. Allele frequency distributions show a tendency toward a deficit in diversity for HRAS-1 and a slight excess diversity for D14S1. The direction of these departures is consistent with potential selective effects of the Harvey-ras oncogene and hitchhiking of the D14S1 locus to closely linked immunoglobulin genes. Direct chi 2-tests of goodness of fit of the observed and expected allele frequency distributions reveal significant departures in the caucasoid and Hispanic HRAS-1 distributions but not in any of the other tests.