Effect of linkage on behavior of mutant genes in finite populations

In this paper, the effectiveness of the apparent or “associated” overdominance caused by linked selected loci on maintaining genetic variability was investigated using diffusion models. It was shown that when a population is subdivided, the amount of linkage disequilibrium is determined by the local population size if the recombination fraction is much larger than the migration rates. Also, it was shown that the associative overdominance temporarily creates a sort of inertia against perturbation in gene frequencies even if it cannot endow any definite equilibrium values. Hence, it has no long term effect on the rate of mutant substitution in evolution.