linked genes
Linked genes are genes that ride on the same chromosome close enough together that they usually travel into a gamete as a package. Think of two charms threaded onto the same bracelet: pick up the bracelet and both charms come along together far more often than not.
Because crossing over only occasionally breaks the chromosome between them, linked genes do not follow Mendel's expectation of independent assortment. Instead, the combinations of alleles seen in the parents tend to reappear in the offspring more frequently than predicted by chance, and new combinations appear less frequently.
How tightly a pair of genes is linked depends on the distance between them. Genes right next to each other are almost never separated; genes farther apart on the same chromosome are split by crossovers more often. Measuring how often the parental combinations are broken lets geneticists estimate the distance between linked genes.
In fruit flies, the genes for body color and wing shape sit close together on one chromosome, so most offspring inherit the same color-and-wing pairing the parent had, with only a minority showing recombined combinations.
Linked alleles tend to be inherited as a parental pair.