Bio II DiGennaro

Hardy-Weinberg Practice Problems

1. A population of rabbits may be brown (the dominant phenotype) or white (the
recessive phenotype). Brown rabbits have the genotype BB or Bb. hite rabbits have
the genotype bb. !he fre"uency of the BB genotype is .#$.
hat is the fre"uency of hetero%ygous rabbits& 0.484
hat is the fre"uency of the B allele& 0.59
hat is the fre"uency of the b allele& 0.41
'. A hypothetical population of 1()((( humans has *+,( individuals with the blood type
AA) '+*( individuals with blood type AB and #(( individuals with the blood type
BB.
hat is the fre"uency of each genotype in this population&
AA = 0.684 / AB = 0.286 / BB = 0.03
hat is the fre"uency of the A allele& 0.827
hat is the fre"uency of the B allele& 0.173
If the ne-t generation contained '$)((( individuals) how many individuals would
have blood type BB) assuming the population is in .ardy/einberg e"uilibrium&
750
3. A population of birds contains 1* animals with red tail feathers and #, animals with
blue tail feathers. Blue tail feathers are the dominant trait.
hat is the fre"uency of the red allele& 0.566
hat is the fre"uency of the blue allele& 0.434
hat is the fre"uency of hetero%ygotes& 0.49
hat is the fre"uency of birds homo%ygous for the blue allele& 0.188
4. Brown hair (B) is dominant to blond hair (b). If there are 1*+ brown haired people in
a population of '((0
hat is the predicted fre"uency of hetero%ygotes& 0.48
hat is the predicted fre"uency of homo%ygous dominant& 0.36
hat is the predicted fre"uency of homo%ygous recessive& 0.16
5. If 1+ out of '(( individuals in a population e-press the recessive phenotype) what
percent of the population are hetero%ygotes& 42%
6. 2ourant et al. (113*) cite data on ,(( Bas"ues from 4pain) of which '#( were 5h6
and 13( were 5h/.
7alculate the allele fre"uencies of D and d (DD individuals have the 5h6
phenotype. dd individuals have the 5h/ phenotype. !he phenotype of Dd is 5h6).
Frequency of D = 0.348 / Frequency of d = 0.652
.ow many of the 5h6 individuals would be e-pected to be hetero%ygous& 181
7. !he I
A
8allele8 for the AB9 blood groups actually consists of two subtypes) I
A1
and
I
A'
) either being considered 8I
A
8. In 7aucasians) about #:, of the IA alelles are I
A1
and
Bio II DiGennaro
1:, are I
A'
(7avalli/4for%a and ;dwards) 11*3). hat would be the e-pected
proportions of I
A1
I
A1
) I
A1
I
A'
) and I
A'
I
A'
among I
A
I
A
individuals&
I
A1
I
A1
= 0.563 / I
A1
I
A2
= 0.063 / I
A2
I
A2
= 0.375
8. 1 in 13(( <4 7aucasian newborns have cystic fibrosis. 7 is the normal allele)
dominant over the recessive c. Individuals must be homo%ygous for the recessive
allele to have the disease.
hat percent of the above population have cystic fibrosis (cc or "
'
)& 0.059%
Assuming a .ardy/einberg ;"uilibrium) how many newborns would have
cystic fibrosis in a population of 1()((( people& 5.9
9. !he ability to taste =!7 is due to a single dominate allele 8!8. >ou sampled '1$
individuals in a biology class) and determined that 1$( could detect the bitter taste of
=!7 and *$ could not.
hat is the predicted fre"uency of the recessive allele (t)& 0.55
hat is the predicted fre"uency of dominant allele (!)& 0.45
In a population of 1()((( people) how many would be hetero%ygous (assuming
.ardy/einberg e"uilibrium)& .omo%ygous dominant& .omo%ygous recessive&
7alculate all of the potential fre"uencies. TT = .203 / T = .495 / = .302
10. 4ic?le/cell anemia is an interesting genetic disease. @ormal homo%ygous individials
(44) have normal blood cells that are easily infected with the malarial parasite. !hus)
many of these individuals become very ill from the parasite and many die. Individuals
homo%ygous for the sic?le/cell trait (ss) have red blood cells that readily collapse
when deo-ygenated. Although malaria cannot grow in these red blood cells)
individuals often die because of the genetic defect. .owever) individuals with the
hetero%ygous condition (4s) have some sic?ling of red blood cells) but generally not
enough to cause mortality. In addition) malaria cannot survive well within these
8partially defective8 red blood cells. !hus) hetero%ygotes tend to survive better than
either of the homo%ygous conditions. If 1A of an African population is born with a
severe form of sic?le/cell anemia (ss)) what percentage of the population will be more
resistant to malaria because they are hetero%ygous (4s) for the sic?le/cell gene& 42%
11. !he trait for Bmale/pattern baldnessB is a recessive trait encoded for by 8b8. @on/
balding is encoded for by a dominant allele encoded for by the letter 8B8. A street
survey conducted by .air 7lub for 2en found that out of 1((( men) #*( had male
pattern baldness) the other ,+( who did not and were hetero%ygous) and 1*( who did
not and were homo%ygous for a full head of hair.
hat are the phenotype ratios& B!"dne## $ %!&r = 360 $ 640
<sing this information find the allele fre"uencies for B and b. B = 0.4 / ' = 0.6
hat are the e-pected genotype fre"uencies& BB = 0.16 / B' = 0.48 / '' = 0.36