The Genetics of DROSOPHILA SUBOBSCURA Populations. Xiv. Further Data on Linkage Disequilibria.

Data coming from one natural population of D. subobscura, that of Crete, are presented in detail and examined for nonrandom associations of genes and gene arrangements. This population and four others previously studied are reanalyzed for the detection of higher than first-order interactions. Only first-order interactions are important and statistically significant, especially those concerning genes and inversions in which these genes are included. The paucity of linkage disequilibria detected is remarkable, and we argue that it does not depend on the methods of study, rather it is genuine. We further argue that most of the disequilibria detected are probably due to mechanisms based on epistatic selection.