Suppose the abilty of white flies to overcome a certain chemical called solanin by its respective allele s. If

Question

suppose the abilty of white flies to overcome a certain chemical called solanin by its respective allele s. If 36% of a population is homozygous feeders and 25% is heterozygous feeders,what is the frequency of the s alleles?

Answer 1

I am assuming by "feeders" you mean flies that can overcome solanin and that the "s" allelle is dominant (even though you have written it lower case)...

This is a simple Hardy-Weinberg problem. The homozygote feeders are represented by "p squared" in the Hardy-Weinberg equation, and the heterozygotes are 2pq. Remember that p+q=1. If 36% of the population is homozygous, then p squared=0.36. Therefore p=0.6, or 60%. The frequency of "s" is thefore 60%.

Check this link for more information: http://www.k-state.edu/parasitology/biol...