Question

Brown fur is dominant to white fur in mice. in a population of mice, 64% have brown fur and 36% have white fur. based on these facts, calculate the followi

Answer 1

a.       The frequency of the dominant allele: ___0.4______

b.      The frequency of the recessive allele: ____0.6_____

c.       The percentage of mice that are homozygous dominant: __16%_______

d.       The percentage of mice that are heterozygous: _48%________

e.      The percentage of mice that are homozygous recessive: __36%_______

 

Let us assign the dominant allele (that of brown hair) letter R while

We assign the recessive allele (that of white hair) letter r

We then note down the Hardy-Weinburg equation p2 + 2pq + q2 = 1

Brown fur population (p2 + 2pq) = 64% = 0.64

White fur population (q2) = 36% = 0.36

Then we also remember that the frequencies of both allele add up to 1 (p + q = 1);

Therefore q = ü.36 = 0.6

P = 1 – q = 1 – 0.6 = 0.4

The heterozygous population will be 2*0.6*0.4 = 0.48 =  48%

Homozygous domain population will therefore be (64% - 48%) = 16%