2. If, in a sample of people from Birmingham, 22% were found to be of blood group N, what, approximately, would be the expected percentages of the M and MN groups?
3. A packet of Nicotiana seeds was bought
from a seedsman and, when the seeds germinated, 192 seedlings were albino
and 2880 were green.
A. What proportion of the seedlings
would be expected to be homozygous for chlorophyll production?
B. What proportion of the seedlings
would be expected to be carriers of the albino gene?
4. A recessive lethal gene in chickens causes circulatory failure and death of the embryo at 70 hours. A commercial hatchery finds that a hatching failure due to this gene of greater than 4% is unacceptable. What is the upper limit for the frequency of this allele in the breeding population of fowls that is acceptable to the hatchery managers?
5. The alleles for red and white coat color
in cattle show absence of dominance, the heterozygote being roan.
A. In a freely breeding herd of
1000 head how many would you expect to be of each coat color if the allele
for white coat has a frequency of 0.4?
B. If all the white cattle were
sold for slaughter and the red and roan animals were allowed to breed freely,
about what percentage of the offspring would be expected to be white?
6. In a sample of 2400 births at a maternity
hospital, six babies died shortly after birth from the effects of a recessive
gene (co) for colonic obstruction.
A. What is the frequency of this
gene in the population?
B. What proportion of the population
is heterozygous and what proportion is homozygous for the normal allele?
7. In a randomly mating population of
Drosophila three alleles for the white-eye locus were known to be present
in the following percentage frequencies:
w+ (wild type, red eye) 20%
wa (apricot eye)
8%
w (white eye) 72%
Phenotypes associated with each genotype
are as follows:
w+w+ , w+ wa , w+w - red
wa wa - apricot
waw - light apricot
ww - white
What percentages of the various
eye colors would you expect to find in the population?
8. A rancher decided to raise cattle in
an isolated valley and bought 1000 head which he transported to the valley
to establish a randomly mating population. When released, the animals
consisted of 130 white-coated beasts, 330 red, and 540 roan.
A. Does this represent a population
in equilibrium?
B. What will be the proportions
of coat color in the next generation?
C. Is this second generation in
equilibrium?
9. In a certain population the following
gene frequencies were observed:
I (blood group O) 0.775
M 0.45
Rh+ 0.6
What percentages of the population
would be expected to have the following blood groups?
A. ORh-
B. O MN
C. O MN Rh+
10. Because a nurseryman finds that his
customers generally prefer antirrhinum flowers that are red or pink, he
plans that the seeds provided for sale shall contain as few seeds for white
flower as possible. He samples his antirrhinum plot which has been
established for some years, pollinates randomly, and finds that 9% of the
plants have white flowers. He uproots these plants. Next year the
remaining red and pink flowers pollinate freely and he collects their seed
for marketing.
A. What proportion of the seeds
he sells will subsequently produce plants with white flowers?
B. How could he obtain an antirrhinum
plot that never gives "white-flower" seeds?
C. Can he obtain a plot that gives
only red and pink flowers?
11. Three alleles for the C locus (coat
color) in the rabbit are c (albino), which is recessive to cch (chinchilla
coat), which in turn is recessive to C (the allele for full coat color).
In a randomly mating population of rabbits the following gene frequencies
were determined:
C 0.2
cch 0.6
c 0.2
What proportions of coat color (expressed
as percentages) would you expect to find in that population?
12. In a different population of rabbits
a further allele of the C locus was present, namely ch (Himalayan coat).
This allele is dominant to c (albino) but is recessive to the other alleles.
The frequencies of the alleles were:
C 0.2
cch 0.3
ch 0.3
c 0.2
What percentages of coat color
would you expect in this population?
13. A mink rancher has a randomly breeding
population of animals but decides to prevent those animals which show a
barred fur pattern (due to a recessive gene b) from mating, since this
fur is less valuable commercially. Initially the barred animals make
up 9% of his population. What proportion of barred animals will he
obtain
A. In the next generation?
B. After five generations?
14. A recessive mutation causes short sightedness
(ss) in cats. The frequency of homozygous wild type (+/+), heterozgous
(+/ss) and homozygous recessive (ss/ss) individuals was assessed in two
populations of cats.
| +/+ | +/ss | ss/ss | |
| country cats | 0.49 | 0.42 | 0.09 |
| city cats | 0.52 | 0.45 | 0.03 |
A. Are the two populations in Hardy-Weinberg
equilibrium?
B. If one population is not, what
might cause this deviation?
15. For an X-linked trait, 9% of the females in the population are affected. What percentage of the males would be affected? What percentage of the population would be represented by carriers?
16. You have been commissioned to study
the genetic make-up of an ancient tribe of Arabs whose descendents live
in northern Saudi Arabia. They hire you to test for the frequencies
of a number of well-known genetic traits. The only hitch is that
these people won't let any outsiders go near the women. "No problem,"
you say, "as long as I can test the men to determine allele frequencies,
I can figure out the gene frequencies in women. That is, if the mode
of inheritance is known, and if we can assume Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium."
Prove you can by filling in the empty boxes.
| trait | mode of inheritance | frequency of trait
in males |
p | q | frequency of trait
in females |
| PTC taster | autosomal dominant | 0.75 | |||
| blue eyes | autosomal recessive | 0.09 | |||
| color-blindness | X-linked recessive | 0.05 | |||
| Xg blood type | X-linked dominant | 0.4 | |||
| pattern baldness | autosomal dominant in males,
recessive in females |
0.36 |
For questions, comments
and additional information, contact mfhicks@pstcc.edu
Last Updated: July 8,
2001
Site map: Margaret
F. Hicks Home - Biology 2120 -
Notes
- Hardy Weinberg Problems
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