Genomics

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Linkage disequilibrium (LD) is the non-random association of alleles at two or more loci, not necessarily on the same chromosome. It is not the same as linkage, which describes the association of two or more loci on a chromosome with limited recombination between them. LD describes a situation in which some combinations of alleles or genetic markers occur more or less frequently in a population than would be expected from a random formation of haplotypes from alleles based on their frequencies.

Linkage disequilibrium is caused by fitness interactions between genes or by such non-adaptive processes as population structure, inbreeding, and stochastic effects. In population genetics, linkage disequilibrium is said to characterize the haplotype distribution at two or more loci.

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