The geometry of random drift III. Recombination and diffusion

Abstract

A new diffusion model for random genetic drift of a two-locus di-allelic system is proposed. The Christoffel velocity field and the intrinsic geometry of the diffusion is computed for the equilibrium surface. It is seen to be radically non-spherical and to depend explicitly on the recombination fraction. The model has not been shown to be a limit of discrete Markov chains. For large values of the recombination, the present model is radically different from that of Ohta and Kimura, which is an approximation to the discrete process of random mating in the limit as the value of the recombination fraction goes to zero.