The effects of finite population size and selection on the correlation between gene frequency changes at two different loci and on the amount of linkage disequilibrium

Summary A potentially infinite random-mating population of monoecious diploid individuals is subjected to a single cycle of sampling and selection based on the values of a quantitative character. In the absence of epistatic interactions, expressions are obtained for the correlation between the gene frequencies at two linked loci and for the mean and variance of linkage disequilibrium after one cycle of selection. Numerical results are presented for a range of population sizes and for various values of the genetic parameters.