Among a large population of 2 million gray mosquitoes, one mosquito is heterozygous for a body color gene; this mosquito has one gray allele and one blue allele. There is no selective advantage or disadvantage between gray and blue body color. All of the other mosquitoes carry two copies of the gray allele. A. What is the probability of fixation of the blue allele? B. If fixation happens to occur, how many generations is it likely to take? C. Qualitatively, how would the answers to parts A and B be affected if the blue allele conferred a slight survival advantage?
Among a large population of 2 million gray mosquitoes, one mosquito is heterozygous for a body color gene; this mosquito has one gray allele and one blue allele. There is no selective advantage or disadvantage between gray and blue body color. All of the other mosquitoes carry two copies of the gray allele.
A. What is the probability of fixation of the blue allele?
B. If fixation happens to occur, how many generations is it likely to take?
C. Qualitatively, how would the answers to parts A and B be affected if the blue allele conferred a slight survival advantage?
There is a population of 2 million gray mosquitoes, in which only one mosquito is heterozygous for the body color gene and this heterozygous mosquito is carrying one gray allele and one blue allele for the body color. Rest all the mosquitoes have two copies of the gray allele for body color.
(A). Assuming the equal numbers of female and male mosquitoes that are contributing to the next generation, the probability of fixation of the blue allele is 1/2 N. Where N is the total number of mosquitoes.
Probability of fixation of blue allele = 1/2 N = 1/2 (2000000)
= 1/4000000
That means probability of fixation of the blue allele is 1 in 4000000 chance.
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