You decide to look at the beetle population at a park. This particular species f

Question

You decide to look at the beetle population at a park. This particular species found in the park is known for a very striking body color, either a very bright race-car red or a deep ebony black. You manage to find several beetles of the same species that are actually a wine colored burgundy. A quick search on the internet tells you that this body color gene is suspected to have incomplete dominance. You collect 100 beetles from the park and find 55 black beetles, 30 burgundy beetles, and 15 red beetles.
a) Calculate the frequencies for the black body allele and the red body allele.

b) What are the predicted genotypic frequencies based on the calculated allelic frequencies?

c) Is this population of beetles in Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium? Can we make this assumption? Why or why not?

Explanation / Answer

a) According to the data provided, from a collection of 100 beetles, 55 are black, 30 burgundy and 15 red.

Also it is mentioned that this body color gene shows incomplete dominance.

According to Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium, p2+2pq+q2 = 1 and p+q = 1

0.55 black beetles = p2

Therefore, p = 0.742 (frequency of the dominant allele)

0.15 red beetles = q2

Therefore, q = 0.387 (frequency of recessive allele)

b) Predicted genotypic frequencies :

For black = 0.742*0.742 = 0.55

For red = 0.397*0.387 = 0.149

For burgundy = 2(0.742*0.387) =0.574

c) This population is not in Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium as it does not follow the principle.

According to the predicted values the genotypic frequency for burgundy is predicted to be 0.574 while the actual value is calculated to be 0.3

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