1. Sickle-cell anemia is caused by a mutation in the ?-globin gene. Heterozygote

Question

1. Sickle-cell anemia is caused by a mutation in the ?-globin gene. Heterozygotes for the Hbs disease allele have some protection from malaria relative to wild-type, but Hbs homozygotes rarely live to produce offspring. 50 individuals homozygous for the normal (non-disease) allele produced a total of 47 children. 50 heterozygous individuals produced a total of 55 children. 50 Hbs homozygous individuals produced a total of 0 children. What is the average fitness per individual of the heterozygotes? What is the relative fitness of the homozygous normal individuals?

Explanation / Answer

Average fitness is the number of progeny produced by each type of parent. For the heterozygotes the total number of progeny is 55 and the number of parents is 50. Therefore the average fitness is 55/50 which equals 1.1 progeny/parent. Relative fitness is the number of progeny produced per parent, compared to the maximun number of progeny produced by any parent, and thus the value must be between 0-1. The maximum fitness is for heterozygotes, which we already calculated to be 1.1. For the normal homozyogtes their average fitness is 47/50 which equals 0.94. To compare this to the heterozygotes and calculate relative fitness we divide 0.94 by 1.1 which is 0.854. If you divide 1,1 by 1.1 you get the relative fitness of the heterozygotes to be 1, which is the maximum. 2 years ago

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