Coalescentbased
Coalescent-based approaches refer to methods in population genetics and evolutionary biology that use coalescent theory to model the ancestry of gene copies and to infer demographic parameters from genetic data. The coalescent describes how lineages traced backward in time coalesce to common ancestors, with rates determined mainly by effective population size and other demographic processes. By connecting observed genetic variation to the distribution of genealogies, coalescent-based inference provides a framework for estimating historical population dynamics.
In practice, coalescent-based methods can operate within Bayesian or frequentist frameworks, using full-likelihood or approximate likelihoods
Applications include reconstruction of demographic histories, species delimitation, phylogeography, and inference of ancient admixture. The methods
Limitations include assumptions of neutral evolution and random mating within populations, sensitivity to model misspecification, and
See also: coalescent theory, skyline plots, PSMC, MSMC, BEAST, G-PhoCS.