A model is presented to determine the effects of absolute imprinting on population structure when individuals will only select mates the same color as their parents. Under these conditions, only the trivial equilibria can result in which one allele is eliminated and the population becomes homozygous for the alternative color allele or in which the population is subdivided into two moieties, each moiety being homozygous for one of the color alleles and between which there is no gene flow. Therefore imprinting can act as a powerful sympatric speciation mechanism. When imprinting is partial, it can act as a mechanism, independent of heterosis, to establish a balanced polymorphism in a population.
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Marvin Barr Seiger (1967) studied this question.