6. Red-footed boobies vary in plumage color. For simplicity, letâs pretend that there are two forms. Brown birds have darker plumage because they are genotypically either MM or Mm. White birds have light plumage because they carry the genotype mm.
You go out to Genovesa Island with a pair of binoculars and you count the number of melanic and white boobies out of the first 1000 birds you see. You count 490 white boobies and 510 melanic boobies.
a. Assuming HWE, what is the frequency of the M allele of the plumage color gene?
Next, you collect feathers from 500 birds. You extract DNA from the feathers and determine the genotype of the birds at the plumage gene. You genotype 245 white birds and you find that they are all homozygous for the m allele. You genotype 255 brown birds and find that 190 of them are homozygous for the M allele and 65 are heterozygous (Mm).
b. Given this genotype data, what is the frequency of the M allele?
c. Given the what you know about expected and observed genotype frequencies in this group, do you expect that the null hypothesis of Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium holds true? If not, what evolutionary phenomenon might explain this discrepancy?
6. Red-footed boobies vary in plumage color. For simplicity, letâs pretend that there are two forms. Brown birds have darker plumage because they are genotypically either MM or Mm. White birds have light plumage because they carry the genotype mm.
You go out to Genovesa Island with a pair of binoculars and you count the number of melanic and white boobies out of the first 1000 birds you see. You count 490 white boobies and 510 melanic boobies.
a. Assuming HWE, what is the frequency of the M allele of the plumage color gene?
Next, you collect feathers from 500 birds. You extract DNA from the feathers and determine the genotype of the birds at the plumage gene. You genotype 245 white birds and you find that they are all homozygous for the m allele. You genotype 255 brown birds and find that 190 of them are homozygous for the M allele and 65 are heterozygous (Mm).
b. Given this genotype data, what is the frequency of the M allele?
c. Given the what you know about expected and observed genotype frequencies in this group, do you expect that the null hypothesis of Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium holds true? If not, what evolutionary phenomenon might explain this discrepancy?
