Maximum-likelihood estimation of admixture proportions from genetic data

For an admixed population, an important question is how much genetic contribution comes from each parental population. Several methods have been developed to estimate such admixture proportions, using data on genetic markers sampled from parental and admixed populations. In this study, I propose a likelihood method to estimate jointly the admixture proportions, the genetic drift that occurred to the admixed population and each parental population during the period between the hybridization and sampling events, and the genetic drift in each ancestral population within the interval between their split and hybridization. The results from extensive simulations using various combinations of relevant parameter values show that in general much more accurate and precise estimates of admixture proportions are obtained from the likelihood method than from previous methods. The likelihood method also yields reasonable estimates of genetic drift that occurred to each population, which translate into relative effective sizes (N(e)) or absolute average N(e)'s if the times when the relevant events (such as population split, admixture, and sampling) occurred are known. The proposed likelihood method also has features such as relatively low computational requirement compared with previous ones, flexibility for admixture models, and marker types. In particular, it allows for missing data from a contributing parental population. The method is applied to a human data set and a wolflike canids data set, and the results obtained are discussed in comparison with those from other estimators and from previous studies.