Analytical results on the Muller's ratchet effect in growing populations

TL;DR

This paper develops a branching process model to analytically study Muller's ratchet in growing asexual populations, extending previous results and confirming simulation findings.

Contribution

It introduces generalized recurrence equations for Muller's ratchet, broadening the analytical understanding beyond prior models.

Findings

Derived new recursive equations for Muller's ratchet.

Confirmed simulation results with analytical methods.

Extended analysis to include death probabilities.

Abstract

Fontanari et al introduced [Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 218101 (2003)] a model for studying the Muller's ratchet phenomenon in growing asexual populations. They studied two situations, either including or not a death probability for each newborn, but were able to find analytical (recursive) expressions only in the no-decay case. In this paper a branching process formalism is used to find recorrence equations that generalize the analytical results of the original paper besides confirming the interesting effects their simulations revealed.