Theoretical models and data analysis are to be used to study intragenic recombination in bacteria, as well as other aspects of population dynamics that can be inferred from statistical analysis of DNA sequences. A typical question is (i) attempt to estimate the relative strength of classical genetic drift and gene conversion as conservative forces in equilibrium allele distributions in prokaryotes. Recently developed statistical techniques for analysing DNA sequences have shown strong evidence for common between-strain gene conversion involving segments of 300 base pairs or less in the bacterium Escherichia coli. Other topics proposed are to (ii) study the statistical power and consistency of these tests, (iii) develop statistical techniques for estimating the frequency of this type of intragenic recombination with strains external to a sample.
