Linkage | An association in inheritance between characters such that the parental character combinations appear among the progeny more often than the non-parental. The proximity of two or more markers (e.g. genes, RFLP markers) on a chromosome; the closer together the markers are, the lower the probability that they will be separated during DNA repair or replication processes (binary fission in prokaryotes, mitosis or meiosis in eukaryotes), and hence the greater the probability that they will be inherited together. Cf. recombination, complete linkage, partial linkage, non-linkage, linkage equilibrium, linkage disequilibrium. |