Question

Rh-positive individuals have the Rh antigen on their red blood cells, while Rh-negative individuals do not. If the Rh-positive phenotype is produced by a dominant gene (A), and the Rh-negative phenotype is due to its recessive allele

(a). what is the frequency of the Rh-positive allele if 84% of a population is Rh-positive?

Answer 1

Frequency of the Rh-positive allele
`= 0.6`

Step-by-step explanation:

Given-

A represents the dominant gene i.e Rh-positive

a represents the recessive gene i.e Rh-negative

It is given that 84% of a population is Rh-positive. This means that 84% of a population will have genotype either Aa or AA

Now as per Hardy Weinberg's equation -

`p^2` is the frequency of Aa or AA genotype

`q^2` is the frequency of aa genotype

Frequency of recessive allele

`√(q) \\= √((1-0.84) \\= √(0.16) \\= 0.4`

As per first equation of HW equilibrium -

`p + q = 1`

Substituting the value of q in above equation , we get

`p + 0.4 = 1\\p = 1-0.4\\p =0.6`