Genetic Correlations in Mutation Processes

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how phylogenetic tree structures influence mutation process correlations, revealing two regimes based on mutation rates and demonstrating a universal critical behavior in multiple point correlations.

Contribution

It uncovers the impact of mutation rates on correlation regimes and establishes a universal critical behavior in branching mutation processes.

Findings

Correlations decay exponentially with generation number.

Two distinct regimes of correlation behavior depending on mutation rate.

Universal critical behavior in multiple point correlations.

Abstract

We study the role of phylogenetic trees on correlations in mutation processes. Generally, correlations decay exponentially with the generation number. We find that two distinct regimes of behavior exist. For mutation rates smaller than a critical rate, the underlying tree morphology is almost irrelevant, while mutation rates higher than this critical rate lead to strong tree-dependent correlations. We show analytically that identical critical behavior underlies all multiple point correlations. This behavior generally characterizes branching processes undergoing mutation.