Distortion of allele frequency distributions provides a test for recent population bottlenecks

We use population genetics theory and computer simulations to demonstrate that population bottlenecks cause a characteristic mode-shift distortion in the distribution of allele frequencies at selectively neutral loci. Bottlenecks cause alleles at low frequency ( .80) to detect an allele frequency distortion after a bottleneck of < or = 20 breeding individuals when 8 to 10 polymorphic microsatellite loci are analyzed.