• 1 January 1977
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 29  (3) , 225-232
Abstract
A method for estimating the mutation rate for protein loci from the number of rare alleles in the population is presented. Applying this method to Neel''s data from American Indians in South America and to Nozawa''s data from Jananese macaques, the mutation rate for electrophoretically detectable alleles is estimated to be (2 .apprx. 3) .times. 10-6/locus per generation. This estimate may not include many severely or substantially deleterious mutations.