Question

In a given population of Drosophila, curly wings (c) is recessive to the wild-type condition of straight wings (c+). You isolate a population of 35 curly winged flies, 70 flies that are heterozygous for straight wings, and 45 that are homozygous for straight wings. What is the total number of alleles in the gene pool?

A) 2
B) 300
C) 150
D) 230

Answer 1

B) 300

Step-by-step explanation:

There are two types of alleles present for wing type in this population of Drosophila, c and c+. Various combinations of these two alleles will produce different phenotypes.

c+c+ : straight wings = 45

c+c: straight wings = 70

cc: curly wings = 35

Total flies = 150

Each fly has one gene with two alleles for wing type. Hence 150 flies will have 300 alleles in the gene pool.