A critical examination of the use of the Jolicoeur-Brunel diagrams to demonstrate selection in biological populations.

The use of the Jolicoeur-Brunel hexagonal diagrams to demonstrate selection in biological populations was tested in a computer-simulation study.-The results show convincingly that the probabilities associated with the six deviation patterns illustrated in the hexagonal diagrams are not equal, but depend on the sample size and in particular on the genetic composition of the sampled population. The diagrams thus cannot be used to demonstrate selection, but only to illustrate trends of deviation patterns, which may be real biologically.