How to calculate the non-synonymous to synonymous rate ratio of protein-coding genes under the Fisher–Wright mutation–selection framework

Abstract

First principles of population genetics are used to obtain formulae relating the non-synonymous to synonymous substitution rate ratio to the selection coefficients acting at codon sites in protein-coding genes. Two theoretical cases are discussed and two examples from real data (a chloroplast gene and a virus polymerase) are given. The formulae give much insight into the dynamics of non-synonymous substitutions and may inform the development of methods to detect adaptive evolution.