How does linkage affect the inheritance of traits?

Answer 1

As in sex linkage?

Well if a trait is sex linked then one gender may be more likely to have that trait than the other. For example, colour blindness is a trait that is linked to the X chromosome. So males are more likely to be colour blind than females because the colour blindness gene is recessive and males only have 1 X chromosome where as females have 2 X chromosomes. Though females may be carriers of the colour blindness chromosome, therefore potentially passing it on to their children (son or daughter).

Answer 2

Linkage can affect inheritance by causing genes that are physically close together on the same chromosome to be inherited together more often than not. This can decrease the genetic diversity in offspring and limit the possibility of new genetic combinations. However, genetic recombination can break this linkage and result in new combinations of traits being passed on to offspring.