Genetics. Published Articles Ahead of Print: June 18, 2008, Copyright © 2008
doi:10.1534/genetics.107.085654


A more recent version of this article appeared on July 1, 2008.

NOTE

The Direction of Linkage Disequilibrium: a New Measure Based on Ancestral-Derived Status of Segregating Alleles

K. Ryo Takahasi 1 and Hideki Innan 2*

1 RIKEN Genomic Sciences Center
2 Graduate University for Advanced Studies

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: innan_hideki{at}soken.ac.jp.

Submitted on December 10, 2007
Revised on April 13, 2008
Accepted on 21 April 2008


Abstract

A new measure of directional linkage disequilibrium is developed for detecting epistatic selection on interacting genes. Simulations show that by orienting the direction of linkage disequilibrium based on ancestral-derived status of alleles, the new measure indeed improves the power to detect a positive fitness interaction between two new mutations.

Key Words: epistasis, linkage disequilibrium, population genetics, selection, theory