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Do Middle Eastern wolves show significantly higher nucleotide diversity?

April 26, 2017Diversity Eastern middle nucleotide significantly wolves

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Do Middle Eastern wolves show significantly higher nucleotide diversity?

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The statement that Middle Eastern wolves show higher nucleotide diversity [1] is one of the main arguments used to conclude that Middle Eastern wolf haplotypes closely related to the SDH have originated in this region. This is based on nucleotide diversity combined with a standard deviation. The authors fail to provide the reader with any statistical test (P values) or confidence intervals for Middle Eastern nucleotide diversity to be significantly higher in comparison to all other regions. The standard deviations presented are large, partly exceed the estimated values (for example, Iran and China), and are consequently not sufficient to support the conclusion made. The central question is this: is the Israeli wolf population with a nucleotide diversity value (π) of 0.00055 (SD 0.00044; corrected for sample size) significantly different from populations of for example North America (π: 0.00043, SD: 0.00029), Europe (π: 0.00044, SD: 0.00029), Iran (π: 0.00166, SD: 0.00176), or China (π: