In a population of rabbits, the allele for black fur (B) is dominant over the al
Practice Questions
Q1
In a population of rabbits, the allele for black fur (B) is dominant over the allele for white fur (b). If 64% of the rabbits are black, what is the frequency of the recessive allele (b) in the population?
0.36
0.64
0.25
0.5
Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions
In a population of rabbits, the allele for black fur (B) is dominant over the allele for white fur (b). If 64% of the rabbits are black, what is the frequency of the recessive allele (b) in the population?
Step 1: Understand that in this problem, 'B' is the allele for black fur (dominant) and 'b' is the allele for white fur (recessive).
Step 2: Recognize that if 64% of the rabbits are black, this means that 36% of the rabbits must be white (100% - 64% = 36%).
Step 3: Since white fur (bb) is only seen in rabbits with two recessive alleles, the percentage of white rabbits (36%) represents the frequency of the genotype 'bb'.
Step 4: Use the Hardy-Weinberg principle, which states that the frequency of the recessive genotype (bb) is equal to the square of the frequency of the recessive allele (b).
Step 5: Let the frequency of the recessive allele 'b' be represented as 'q'. According to the principle, q^2 = 0.36 (the frequency of bb).
Step 6: To find 'q', take the square root of 0.36: q = √0.36.
Step 7: Calculate the square root: q = 0.6. This means the frequency of the recessive allele 'b' in the population is 0.6.
