A model of assortative mating with partial dominance

Abstract

A model of assortative mating incorporating partial dominance is proposed for a single locus with two alleles. It is derived by starting from an arbitrary genotypic distribution and finding symmetric and non-selective mating frequencies which duplicate this distribution. Numerical values are imputed to genotypes, the homozygotes having numerically equal values, opposite in sign, and the heterozygote having a value determined by the gene and heterozygote frequencies. The model is specified in a canonical form which reveals the correlation between mates based on genotypic values, and relates the correlation to the fixation index. It permits negative as well as positive values of the fixation index. It is shown that this general model includes several particular cases, in equilibrium phase, occurring in the literature.