In Drosophila the recessive allele ebony, e, appears to be selectively neutral,
ID: 42731 • Letter: I
Question
In Drosophila the recessive allele ebony, e, appears to be selectively neutral, that is, homozygous ebony flies survive and reproduce at the same rate as will-type- at least in the lab. You initiate a population of Drosophila with 350 homozygous wild-type flies, 500 heterozygous flies and 150 homozygous ebony flies. Males and females are equally represented in each group.
a) What is the frequency, p, of the dominant allele e+ in this parental generation?
b) Assuming the parents mate at random, what will be the frequency of the wild type phenotype in the F1 generation?
c) You take the F1 generation and kill 80% of the ebony flies. The flies breed randomly to produce the F2 generation. What is s, the selection coefficient? What will be the frequency of ebony flies in the F2 generation.
Explanation / Answer
a. the frquency of p is 0.6
b . frequency of F1 for wild type phenotype is 0.48