On mutations in the branching model for multitype populations

Abstract: The forest of mutations associated to a multitype branching forest is obtained by merging together all vertices of its clusters and by preserving connections between them. We first show that the forest of mutations of any mulitype branching forest is itself a branching forest. Then we give its progeny distribution and describe some of its crucial properties in terms the initial progeny distribution. We also obtain the limiting behaviour of the number of mutations both when the total number of individuals tends to infinity and when the number of roots tends to infinity. The continuous time case is then investigated by considering multitype branching forests with edge lengths. When mutations are non reversible, we give a representation of their emergence times which allows us to describe the asymptotic behaviour of the latters, when the ratios of successive mutation rates tend to 0.