In population genetics, the Balding–Nichols model is a statistical description of the allele frequencies in the components of a sub-divided population. With background allele frequency p the allele frequencies, in sub-populations separated by Wright's FST F, are distributed according to independent draws from
B ( 1 − F F p , 1 − F F ( 1 − p ) ) {\displaystyle B\left({\frac {1-F}{F}}p,{\frac {1-F}{F}}(1-p)\right)}
where B is the Beta distribution. This distribution has mean p and variance Fp(1 – p). The model is due to David Balding and Richard Nichols and is widely used in the forensic analysis of DNA profiles and in population models for genetic epidemiology.
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