MULTILOCUS POPULATION GENETICS WITH WEAK EPISTASIS. I. EQUILIBRIUM PROPERTIES OF TWO-LOCUS TWO-ALLELE MODELS

¹ Department of Mathematics and Division of Environmental Studies, University of California, Davis, California 95616

Using perturbation techniques, I determine the equilibrium of two-locus two-allele models with overdominance and weak epistasis. To lowest order, the allele frequencies, the mean fitness and the covariance between heterokaryotic and homokaryotic flies arising in the Sturtevant experimental design are independent of the recombination rate, r. The disequilibrium varies as one divided by the recombination rate, in contrast to neutral models. Although the disequilibrium generated by weak epistasis is small, too small to be experimentally detected, it can be large enough to have biological importance.