Power of neutrality tests for detecting natural selection

Abstract Detection of natural selection is one of the main interests in population genetics. Thus, many tests have been developed for detecting natural selection using genomic data. Although it is recognized that the utility of tests depends on several evolutionary factors, such as the timing of selection, strength of selection, frequency of selected alleles, demographic events, and initial frequency of selected allele when selection started acting (softness of selection), the relationships between such evolutionary factors and the power of tests are not yet entirely clear. In this study, we investigated the power of 4 tests: Tajiama's D, Fay and Wu's H, relative extended haplotype homozygosity (rEHH), and integrated haplotype score (iHS), under ranges of evolutionary parameters and demographic models to quantitatively expand the understanding of approaches for detecting selection. The results show that each test detects selection within a limited parameter range, and there are still wide ranges of parameters for which none of these tests work effectively. In addition, the parameter space in which each test shows the highest power overlaps the empirical results of previous research. These results indicate that our present perspective of adaptation is limited to only a part of actual adaptation. Tanaka et al. investigated the power of four tests of neutrality: Tajiama’s D, Fay and Wu’s H, rEHH, and iHS, under ranges of evolutionary parameters and demographic models. The results show that each test detects selection within a limited parameter range, and there are still wide ranges of parameters for which none of these tests work effectively.