--- res: bibo_abstract: - 'Selection, mutation, and random drift affect the dynamics of allele frequencies and consequently of quantitative traits. While the macroscopic dynamics of quantitative traits can be measured, the underlying allele frequencies are typically unobserved. Can we understand how the macroscopic observables evolve without following these microscopic processes? This problem has been studied previously by analogy with statistical mechanics: the allele frequency distribution at each time point is approximated by the stationary form, which maximizes entropy. We explore the limitations of this method when mutation is small (4Nμ < 1) so that populations are typically close to fixation, and we extend the theory in this regime to account for changes in mutation strength. We consider a single diallelic locus either under directional selection or with overdominance and then generalize to multiple unlinked biallelic loci with unequal effects. We find that the maximum-entropy approximation is remarkably accurate, even when mutation and selection change rapidly. @eng' bibo_authorlist: - foaf_Person: foaf_givenName: Katarína foaf_name: Bod'ová, Katarína foaf_surname: Bod'ová foaf_workInfoHomepage: http://www.librecat.org/personId=2BA24EA0-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87 orcid: 0000-0002-7214-0171 - foaf_Person: foaf_givenName: Gasper foaf_name: Tkacik, Gasper foaf_surname: Tkacik foaf_workInfoHomepage: http://www.librecat.org/personId=3D494DCA-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87 orcid: 0000-0002-6699-1455 - foaf_Person: foaf_givenName: Nicholas H foaf_name: Barton, Nicholas H foaf_surname: Barton foaf_workInfoHomepage: http://www.librecat.org/personId=4880FE40-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87 orcid: 0000-0002-8548-5240 bibo_doi: 10.1534/genetics.115.184127 bibo_issue: '4' bibo_volume: 202 dct_date: 2016^xs_gYear dct_language: eng dct_publisher: Genetics Society of America@ dct_title: A general approximation for the dynamics of quantitative traits@ ...