ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN ALLOZYME LOCI AND GENE ARRANGEMENTS DUE TO HITCH-HIKING EFFECTS OF NEW INVERSIONS

The hypothesis is examined that the associations between alleles at allozyme loci and gene arrangements, which are observed in many Drosophila populations, result from inversions remaining associated with the alleles contained in the gametes in which they originally occurred. The effects of double crossing over in heterokaryotypes and of selection at loci linked to the allozyme loci, which are themselves assumed to be neutral, were studied theoretically. Selection at linked loci is probably unlikely to have an important effect in retarding the decay of this type of association. The literature on associations between allozymes and gene arrangements is surveyed; it was concluded that a neutralist explantation of this sort cannot be excluded, except possibly in some cases where the allozyme locus is outside the inversion breakpoints and crosses over with measurable frequency in heterokaryotypes.