On the survival of a gene in a subdivided population

Abstract

A classical type of problem in population genetics is that of calculating the probability that a line descended from a particular gene will become extinct. In one problem of this sort, dealt with by Fisher (1922) and Haldane (1927), it is assumed that the population being studied is very large and that initially the number of genes of a particular type, say typeA, is small. These authors obtained the solution by the use of the theory of branching processes.