Question

Black coat color in horses is conferred by the presence of a dominant B allele. Chestnut horses are genotype bb. A population of wild horses consists of 226 black horses and 28 chestnut horses. Assume that this population is at Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium for this locus. Please round all answers correctly to 4 decimal digits. What is the frequency of the B allele? Answer:

Answer 1

Answer:

Frequency of B allele is 0.6681

Explanation:

If p represents the frequency of dominant allele and q represents the frequency of  recessive allele, according to Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium:

p + q = 1

p² + 2pq + q² = 1

where p² = frequency of homozygous dominant genotype

q² = frequency of homozygous recessive genotype

2pq = frequency of heterozygous genotype

Given that number of recessive chestnut horse = 28

Total horses = 226 + 28 = 254

frequency of b² genotype = 28/254 = 0.1102

frequency of recessive b allele = √0.1102 = 0.3319

So, frequency of B allele =

1 - 0.3319 = 0.6681

Hence frequency of B allele is 0.6681