Eugenics has in the past been suggested as a method of eliminating undesirable a

Question

Eugenics has in the past been suggested as a method of eliminating undesirable alleles from our population. This would involve discouraging (perhaps even by force of law) individuals known to possess the unwanted allele in question from reproducing; this is a type of artificial selection. An autosomal recessive trait is present in a population at a frequency of 1 in 1500 (i.e. the frequency of aa homozygotes is 1/1500). If the affected individuals were prevented from reproducing, then what would be the frequencies of the a allele and of aa individuals in the population in the next generation?

Explanation / Answer

HARDY-WEINBERG LAW

Remember the basic formulas:

p2 + 2pq + q2 = 1 and p + q = 1

p = frequency of the dominant allele in the population
q = frequency of the recessive allele in the population
p2 = percentage of homozygous dominant individuals
q2 = percentage of homozygous recessive individuals
2pq = percentage of heterozygous individuals

You have sampled a population in which you know that the percentage of the homozygous recessive genotype (aa) is 36%. Using that 36%, calculate the following:

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