Question

a species of fly has teo alleles for the length of their legs. the allele for ling legs is dominant and is represented by p. the allele for short legs is recessive and is represented by q. if 33 of 100 organisms have short legs what is p

Answer 1

Answer: We know that the frequency of the recessive allele (q) is 0.33, because 33 out of 100 organisms have short legs, which means that they must be homozygous recessive (q).

Let's assume that the frequency of the dominant allele (p) is x. We can calculate the frequency of the homozygous dominant (pp) individuals as x^2, and the frequency of the heterozygous (pq) individuals as 2x(1-x), using the Hardy-Weinberg equation:

p^2 + 2pq + q^2 = 1

Substituting q=0.33 and simplifying, we get:

x^2 + 2x(1-x)(0.33) + 0.33^2 = 1

Solving for x, we get:

x = 0.67

Therefore, the frequency of the dominant allele (p) is 0.67.