Diallelic multilocus model of neutral genes (Q1090641)

The paper considers a diploid multilocus diallelic model of neutral genes in a finite population with reciprocal mutation (mutation rates being equal in both directions and equal among loci). Random genetic drift is considered by using the classical diffusion model approximation. Recombination is not considered. Spectral analysis of the backward diffusion equation and the method of generating functions are used to assess the transient and steady state (as \(t\to \infty\) and as \(d=number\) of loci\(\to \infty)\) distributions and moments of genotype frequencies and other quantities. The results are applied to two situations: a) study of the distribution of a metric character expressing a polygenic trait in a completely linked loci additive model; b) study of the distribution of the number of segregating sites in DNA nucleotide sequences. These distributions are compared to other situations in order to assess the effects of mutation, random genetic drift and linkage disequilibrium.