Question

In chickens, having feathers on legs is dominant to having featherless legs. In a population of 200 chickens, 128 have featherless legs. How many chickens are heterozygous for the "feathered leg" allele? Assume the population is in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium

Answer 1

Number of heterozygous population 64

Step-by-step explanation:

Given data:

Total population of chicken 200

Number of chicken having featherless legs 128, that represent q2 (as they are homozygous recessive)

Total number of chickens = 200

Therefore, the value of
`q^2 = (128)/(200) = 0.64`

`q^2 = 0.64`

so q = 0.8, and

p = 1 - q

= 1 - 0.8 = 0.2

The frequency of
`2pq = 2 *  0.8 * 0.2 = 0.32`

Therefore, Number of heterozygous population
`= 0.32 *  200 = 64`