Question

If you can assume that a population is in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, the frequency of a recessive allele can be estimated as

a)the square root of the frequency of the dominant phenotype.
b)1 - (the frequency of the recessive phenotype).
c)the square root of the frequency of the recessive phenotype.
d)1 - (the frequency of the dominant phenotype).
e)2 - (the frequency of the recessive phenotype) - (the frequency of the dominant phenotype).

Answer 1

The frequency of a recessive allele in a population in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium can be determined by taking the square root of the frequency of the homozygous recessive phenotype.

Step-by-step explanation:

If you can assume that a population is in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, the frequency of a recessive allele can be estimated as the square root of the frequency of the recessive phenotype.

In Hardy-Weinberg terms, for a gene with two possible alleles, let's denote the frequency of the dominant allele as p and the frequency of the recessive allele as q. According to the equation p² + 2pq + q² = 1, which represents the sum of the frequencies of the genotypes in a population, the value of q² is the frequency of the homozygous recessive phenotype. Therefore, to find the frequency of the recessive allele q, you would take the square root of the frequency of the homozygous recessive phenotype (qq).