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Activity Number:
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333
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Type:
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Contributed
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Date/Time:
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Tuesday, July 31, 2007 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
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Sponsor:
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Biometrics Section
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| Abstract - #309418 |
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Title:
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Variability Study of a Robust Estimator of Mutation Rate in Fluctuation Analysis
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Author(s):
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Xiaowei Wu*+ and Erin Strome and Sharon Plon and Marek Kimmel
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Companies:
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Rice University and Texas Children's Cancer Center and Texas Children's Cancer Center and Rice University
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Address:
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6100 Main St MS138, Houston, TX, 77005,
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Keywords:
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Fluctuation analysis ; Luria-Delbruck distribution ; Mutation rates
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Abstract:
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Fluctuation analysis is an established technique of estimating mutation rates in cultured cells. This paper presents a modified median estimator of mutation rate, which allows for large spread of the total culture population size $N_t$. Simulation results show a good accuracy and robustness of the modified median estimator compared with the traditional median estimator and the maximum likelihood estimator. The proposed estimator is applied to 116 experimental datasets collected for a study of chromosome loss and recombination in S. cerevisiae diploid yeast strains which vary in their genetic stability. An interesting empirical inverse relationship between the population size $N_t$ and the mutation rate, which may cause inflation of variability of estimates, is discussed.
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