Question 1

Paper 2Medium16 marks

In a moth population, wing pattern is controlled by two alleles, B and b. The B allele gives dark wings and is dominant; moths with genotype bb have pale wings. Treat the counts below as the complete populations, so ignore sampling error.

GenerationPopulation information
11000 moths; 160 have pale wings
21000 moths; 400 BB, 400 Bb and 200 bb

Assume generation 1 is in genetic equilibrium. Allele counting in generation 2 gives p = 0.60 and q = 0.40. Records of the mating pairs that produced generation 2 show that moths preferentially mated with partners having the same wing pattern.

(a)

State what p and q represent for this gene and give their relationship.

[2]
(b)

Calculate p and q for generation 1, and the expected frequencies of BB, Bb and bb.

[5]
(c)

Calculate the observed genotype frequencies in generation 2. Determine whether they fit the Hardy–Weinberg equation for the allele frequencies given.

[4]
(d)

Explain how the mating pattern could account for the genotype frequencies in generation 2.

[2]
(e)

State three conditions, other than random mating, required for a population to remain in genetic equilibrium.

[3]

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