Question

Question 7 There are 100 students in a class. Ninety-six did well in the course whereas four blew it totally and received a grade of F. Sorry. In the highly unlikely event that these traits are genetic rather than environmental, if these traits involve dominant and recessive alleles, and if the four (4%) represent the frequency of the homozygous recessive condition, please calculate the frequency of heterozygous individuals (2pq). a 16% b 29% c 32% d 57%

Answer 1

To solve the problem, we need to apply the Hardy-Weinberg principle, which is used to calculate the frequencies of genotypes in a population that is not evolving.

Given that 4% of the students (4 out of 100) represent the homozygous recessive individuals (ff, with genotype frequency \( q^2 = 0.04 \)), we can find \( q \) (the frequency of the recessive allele).

1. Calculate \( q \): \[ q = \sqrt{q^2} = \sqrt{0.04} = 0.2 \]

2. Calculate \( p \): Since \( p + q = 1 \): \[ p = 1 - q = 1 - 0.2 = 0.8 \]

3. Calculate the frequency of heterozygous individuals (2pq): \[ 2pq = 2 \cdot p \cdot q = 2 \cdot 0.8 \cdot 0.2 = 0.32 \]

Since the frequency of heterozygous individuals (2pq) is 0.32, we can convert it to a percentage:

\[ 0.32 \times 100 = 32% \]

Thus, the frequency of heterozygous individuals is 32%.

The answer is c) 32%.