Understanding Hardy-Weinberg Calculations - Biology

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Question

Consider a population in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. A gene in the population has two alleles. The gene pool shows a distribution of 80% of the dominant allele and 20% the recessive allele.

What percentage of the population is heterozygous for the trait?

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Answer

Since the population is in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, we can use the following equation to determine the genotypic frequencies for the allele in question:

In this equation, represents the frequency of the dominant allele and represents the frequency of the recessive allele. The portion of the expression represents the frequency of heterozygotes in the population. Using the allelic frequencies given in the question, we can calculate the percentage of heterozygous individuals.

32% of the population is heterozygous for the trait.

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