Balding–Nichols model

In population genetics, the Balding–Nichols model is a statistical description of the allele frequencies in the components of a sub-divided population. With background allele frequency p the allele frequencies, in sub-populations separated by Wright's FST F, are distributed according to independent draws from


 * $$B\left(\frac{1-F}{F}p,\frac{1-F}{F}(1-p)\right)$$

where B is the Beta distribution. This distribution has mean p and variance Fp(1 – p).

The model is due to David Balding and Richard Nichols and is widely used in the forensic analysis of DNA profiles and in population models for genetic epidemiology.