Exact Limits of Inference in Coalescent Models

Abstract: Recovery of population size history from molecular sequence data is an important problem in population genetics. Inference commonly relies on a coalescent model linking the population size history to genealogies. The high computational cost of estimating parameters from these models usually compels researchers to select a subset of the available data or to rely on non-sufficient summary statistics for statistical inference. We consider the problem of recovering the true population size history from two possible alternatives on the basis of coalescent time data. We give exact expressions for the probability of selecting the correct alternative in a variety of biologically interesting cases as a function of the separation between the alternative size histories, the number of individuals, loci, and the sampling times. The results are applied to human population history. This work has significant implications for optimal design when the inferential goal is to test scientific hypotheses about population size trajectories in coalescent models with and without recombination.