Muller's ratchet clicks in finite time

Abstract

We consider the accumulation of deleterious mutations in an asexual population, a phenomenon known as Muller's ratchet, using the continuous time model proposed in Etheridge et all. \cite{epw}. We show that for any parameter $\lambda>0$ (the rate at which mutations occur), for any $\alpha>0$ (the toxicity of the mutations) and for any size $N>0$ of the population, the ratchet clicks a.s. in finite time. That is to say the minimum number of deleterious mutations in the population goes to infinity a.s.