A simulation study of the neutral evolution of heterozygosity and genetic distance.

This paper considers a statistical test of neutral theory which can be applied to allozyme variation in natural populations. Computer simulation is used to derive the theoretical relationship between genetic distance and heterozygosity under a variety of neutral models employing stepwise mutation. It is shown that the relationship between these variables is robust to variation in the parameters of the models, and that a test of neutral theory can therefore be derived. Applications of the test in the analysis of data from natural populations are discussed in the light of the simulation results.