Question

one of the conditions for hardy-weinberg equilibrium is that no natural selection occurs in the population. this means that no genotype confers a selective advantage. in this simulation, a selective advantage value of 1 indicates that there is no selective advantage for a specific genotype. now suppose that the tree community in this butterfly population's environment has shifted to include more trees with white coloration on their bark. recall that butterflies with white wings (aa and aa) will be better camouflaged on white trees. to account for this shift, you can adjust the selective advantage setting in the simulation. reset the simulation to the default settings. set the selective advantage value for the aa genotype to 1.1 and run the simulation. what happened to the percentage of each allele in the population over 50 generations and why?

Answer 1

Setting a selective advantage value of 1.1 for the aa genotype in a simulation where the environment has more white trees leads to an increase in the allele associated with white wings, as these butterflies are better camouflaged and have a higher survival and reproduction rate.

Step-by-step explanation:

When the selective advantage value for the aa genotype is set to 1.1 in the simulation, this indicates that butterflies with white wings (genotype aa) have a selective advantage in an environment with more white-colored trees.

As this simulation runs over 50 generations, the percentage of the allele associated with white wings (presumably the 'a' allele) in the population would increase compared to the 'A' allele. This is because individuals with the aa genotype are better camouflaged against predators and thus are more likely to survive and reproduce, passing on the 'a' allele to their offspring.

Consequently, the proportion of the aa genotype in the butterfly population would also increase. This is an example of microevolution driven by natural selection, which is one of the factors that can disrupt the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, resulting in a change in allele frequencies over time.