This group of genes was inherited together because of genetic linkage, or the phenomenon by which genes that are close to each other on the same chromosome are often inherited together.

It is important to note that there is an exception to the law of independent assortment for genes that are located very close to one another on the same chromosome because of genetic linkage.

Basic concepts in population genetics, including nucleotide diversity, random genetic drift, effective population size, coalescent theory, time to common ancestor, site frequency spectrum, linkage ...