---
OA_type: green
_id: '21967'
abstract:
- lang: eng
  text: "Selection against deleterious mutations, called purifying selection, plays
    a central role in evolution and acts in all populations. It is known that the
    genetic patterns observed in genomic regions undergoing purifying selection differ
    from those resulting from neutral evolution. However, a comprehensive understanding
    of the underlying mechanisms shaping those patterns is still lacking.\r\n\r\nIn
    the present work, we use simulations combined with a genealogical approach to
    identify the effect of purifying selection on the ancestry and thus on the genetic
    diversity. Our analysis relies on the postulate that the genealogy belongs to
    the universality class of Beta-coalescents. Under this assumption, we derive statistics
    measuring the distortion of the genealogy. This approach allows us to consider
    a wide range of regimes (i.e. arbitrary selection and mutation strengths) and
    uncover a rich phase diagram. We find that, for strong selection, the limiting
    genealogy is given by Kingman’s coalescent on a polynomial timescale. As selection
    gets weaker, Muller’s ratchet starts operating, setting off the emergence of multiple
    mergers in the genealogical structures. Our results show that while multiple-merger
    coalescents are often interpreted as the signature of selective sweeps in rapidly
    adapting populations, these structures can also appear in the context of Muller’s
    ratchet."
acknowledgement: This work was supported by the Austrian Academy of Science, DOC fellowship
  No 26293 (K.K.) and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme
  under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101034413 (J.T.). Simulations
  were performed on the ISTA High-performance Computing Cluster.
article_processing_charge: No
author:
- first_name: Kseniia
  full_name: Khudiakova, Kseniia
  id: 4E6DC800-AE37-11E9-AC72-31CAE5697425
  last_name: Khudiakova
  orcid: 0000-0002-6246-1465
- first_name: Florin
  full_name: Boenkost, Florin
  last_name: Boenkost
- first_name: Julie N
  full_name: Tourniaire, Julie N
  id: 5dc06dd8-8e51-11ec-9170-8d9c450cc216
  last_name: Tourniaire
citation:
  ama: Khudiakova K, Boenkost F, Tourniaire JN. Genealogies under purifying selection.
    <i>bioRxiv</i>. doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.10.15.618444">10.1101/2024.10.15.618444</a>
  apa: Khudiakova, K., Boenkost, F., &#38; Tourniaire, J. N. (n.d.). Genealogies under
    purifying selection. <i>bioRxiv</i>. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.10.15.618444">https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.10.15.618444</a>
  chicago: Khudiakova, Kseniia, Florin Boenkost, and Julie N Tourniaire. “Genealogies
    under Purifying Selection.” <i>BioRxiv</i>, n.d. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.10.15.618444">https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.10.15.618444</a>.
  ieee: K. Khudiakova, F. Boenkost, and J. N. Tourniaire, “Genealogies under purifying
    selection,” <i>bioRxiv</i>. .
  ista: Khudiakova K, Boenkost F, Tourniaire JN. Genealogies under purifying selection.
    bioRxiv, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.10.15.618444">10.1101/2024.10.15.618444</a>.
  mla: Khudiakova, Kseniia, et al. “Genealogies under Purifying Selection.” <i>BioRxiv</i>,
    doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.10.15.618444">10.1101/2024.10.15.618444</a>.
  short: K. Khudiakova, F. Boenkost, J.N. Tourniaire, BioRxiv (n.d.).
corr_author: '1'
date_created: 2026-06-09T12:14:08Z
date_published: 2024-10-18T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2026-06-12T12:43:34Z
day: '18'
department:
- _id: NiBa
- _id: JaMa
doi: 10.1101/2024.10.15.618444
ec_funded: 1
language:
- iso: eng
main_file_link:
- open_access: '1'
  url: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.10.15.618444
month: '10'
oa: 1
oa_version: Preprint
project:
- _id: 34d33d68-11ca-11ed-8bc3-ec13763c0ca8
  grant_number: '26293'
  name: The impact of deleterious mutations on small populations
- _id: fc2ed2f7-9c52-11eb-aca3-c01059dda49c
  call_identifier: H2020
  grant_number: '101034413'
  name: 'IST-BRIDGE: International postdoctoral program'
publication: bioRxiv
publication_status: draft
related_material:
  record:
  - id: '21918'
    relation: dissertation_contains
    status: public
status: public
title: Genealogies under purifying selection
tmp:
  image: /images/cc_by_nc_nd.png
  legal_code_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode
  name: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
    (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
  short: CC BY-NC-ND (4.0)
type: preprint
user_id: 8b945eb4-e2f2-11eb-945a-df72226e66a9
year: '2024'
...