Question

Within a population of 500 butterflies, the color purple is dominant over the color white. 200 of the butterflies are white. What is the frequency of homozygous dominant individuals? Give your answer as a decimal to the nearest hundredth.

a. 0.40
b. 0.36
c. 0.16
d. 0.60

Answer 1

In a population of 500 butterflies with dominant purple color, the frequency of homozygous dominant individuals is 0.36.

Step-by-step explanation:

In this population of 500 butterflies, the color purple is dominant over the color white. Given that 200 butterflies are white, we can determine the frequency of homozygous dominant individuals.

We know that within the population, the dominant purple allele (P) is present, and the recessive white allele (p) is present. The frequency of the dominant allele (P) can be calculated as 1 - q, where q represents the frequency of the recessive allele (p).

Since 200 butterflies are white, we can determine the frequency of the recessive allele (p) as 200 / 500 = 0.4. Therefore, the frequency of the dominant allele (P) is 1 - 0.4 = 0.6.

Since the color purple (PP) is dominant over white (pp), homozygous dominant individuals (PP) would have a frequency equal to the square of the frequency of the dominant allele (P), which is 0.6 x 0.6 = 0.36.

Therefore, the frequency of homozygous dominant individuals is 0.36, which is closest to 0.36 in the answer choices. So the correct answer is b. 0.36.