A computer model allowing maintenance of large amounts of genetic variability in Mendelian populations. II. The balance of forces between linkage and random assortment.

It is shown, through theory and computer simulations of outbreeding Mendelian populations, that there may be conditions under which a balance is struck between two facotrs. The first is the advantage of random assortment, which will, when multilocus selection is for intermediate equilibrium values, lead to higher average heterozygosity than when linkage is introduced. There is some indication that random assortment is also advantageous when selection is toward a uniform distribution of equilibrium values. The second factor is the advantage of linkage between loci having positive epistatic interactions. When multilocus selection is for a bimodal distribution of equilibrium values an early advantage of random assortment is replaced by a later disadvantage. Linkage disequilibrium, which in finite populations is increased only by random or selective sampling, may hinder the movement of alleles to their selective equilibria, thus leading to the advantage of random assortment.-Some consequences of this approach to the structure of natural populations are discussed.