Estimation of mutation rate from rare protein variants.

A method for estimating the mutation rate for protein loci from the number of rare alleles in the population is presented. It seems to have a number of advantages compared with Kimura and Ohta's method. Applying this method to Neel's data from American Indians in South America and to Nozawa's data from Japanese macaques, the mutation rate for electrophoretically detectable alleles is estimated to be (2 approximately 3) x 10(-6) per locus per generation. This estimate may not include many severely or substantially deleterious mutations.