Imagine a very large population of moths that is isolated from gene that you are studying flow. A single gene controls wing color) Half of the moths have white-spotted wings (genotype WW or Ww) and hàlf of the moths have plain brown wings (ww)./There are no new mutations, individuals mate randomly,/and there is no natural selection on wing color. How will p, the frequency of the dominant allele, phange over time? A. p will increase; the dominant allele will eventually take over and become most common in the population. B. p will neither increase nor decrease; it will remain more or less constant under the conditions described C. p will decrease because of genetic drift. D. p will increase initially, then decrease until the W allele vanishes from the population. E. p will fluctuate rapidly and randomly because of genetic drift.

Question

Biology

Boston Shepherd

9 September, 01:16

Imagine a very large population of moths that is isolated from gene that you are studying flow. A single gene controls wing color) Half of the moths have white-spotted wings (genotype WW or Ww) and hàlf of the moths have plain brown wings (ww)./There are no new mutations, individuals mate randomly,/and there is no natural selection on wing color. How will p, the frequency of the dominant allele, phange over time? A. p will increase; the dominant allele will eventually take over and become most common in the population. B. p will neither increase nor decrease; it will remain more or less constant under the conditions described C. p will decrease because of genetic drift. D. p will increase initially, then decrease until the W allele vanishes from the population. E. p will fluctuate rapidly and randomly because of genetic drift.

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Jenny Jarvis · Answer 1

B. p will neither increase nor decrease; it will remain more or less constant under the conditions described

Explanation:

When a population is in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, it is not evolving and allele frequencies are not going to change across generations. Conditions for a population to be in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium are:

Infinite population size Random mating No selection No mutation No gene flow

Since the moth population in question shows above mentioned characteristics, it is in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Frequency of none of the alleles are going to change.

Hence, p will neither increase nor decrease; it will remain more or less constant under the conditions described.