Coat color in mice is controlled by a dominant allele B with homozygous recessiv

Question

Coat color in mice is controlled by a dominant allele B with homozygous recessive mice being white. A population of laboratory mice have a relative finess value of 1 for all genotypes at this locus, when they are in the laboratory. In the wild, the bb genotype has an S of 0.8. Some animal rights activists liberate a group of laboratory muce with initial gene frequency of 0.2 for B and release them in the wild (in an area with lots of cats).

a). Assuming random mating, what is the frequency of B after one generation?

b). What do you expect to happen to the white mice over many generations in the wild? Did the animal rights activists do the white mice any favors by releasing them?

Explanation / Answer

In wild the selection cofficient (S) of laboratory mouse (bb) =0.8

so, here the relative fitness is S=1-w , w=1-0.8 = 0.2 ( produce 20% of progeny with this genotype)

a) BB genotype has relative frequency w= 1 (most fitted)

initial gene frequency =0.2 (20%) with fitness 1 = 0.2*1=0.2

next genearation = 1/2N = 1/0.4 = 25 %

b) 80% selection cofficient and 20% relative fitness , with high high selection cofficient the generation decreases every single generation.

No favour goes to white mice due to lower fitness.

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