New Tsallis-Entropy Fq Statistic Fine-Tunes Genetic Differentiation Beyond Fst

anshulkundaje · x · 2026-09-18

A Stanford team introduces Fq, a Tsallis-entropy generalization of the fixation index that nests Fst (q=2) and a Shannon-entropy analogue (q=1). Varying q tunes sensitivity across the allele-frequency spectrum, up-weighting rare variants at low q. On 865 Oceanian genomes and genealogical simulations, Fq in OVR/LOO modes attributes population structure and timestamps isolation-migration and founder effects more finely than Fst. Published at IEEE ICASSP (arXiv:2511.03063).

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