Ino Curik: Estimation of Ne using genomic information: simulation and empirical evidence 

Ino Curik (University of Zagreb) compared different methods of estimating Ne in Kladrub horses and in simulated scenarios
From Ino:
Effective population size (Ne) is a key parameter in population genetics that quantifies genetic drift. The main objective of this study was to analyse and compare different genomic (NeLD-SNeP, NeLDGD-GONE and the Ne∆ROH-SVS proposed here), pedigree (NePED∆F-ENDOG) and sex-ratio (NeSEX) estimates of effective population size in the Kladrub horse and in different simulated scenarios (AlphaSimR). In the simulations, all estimates were compared to the actual effective population size due to inbreeding (autozygosity). The most reliable current and historical estimates (NeLDGD- GONE) were obtained using the newly developed software GONE. While the Ne∆ROH-SVS estimates performed reasonably well, further improvements are needed.