Question

In a population of 10,000 individuals, where 3600 are \(M M\) 1600 are \(N N,\) and 4800 are \(M N,\) what are the frequencies of the \(M\) alleles and the \(N\) alleles?

Short answer

Answer: The frequencies of the M and N alleles in the population are 0.6 and 0.4, respectively.

Step-by-step solution

Calculate the total number of M alleles and N alleles in a population

The number of \(M\) alleles from individuals with the \(M M\) genotype is \(2 \times 3600\), since each \(M M\) individual has two \(M\) alleles. Similarly, The number of \(N\) alleles from individuals with the \(N N\) genotype is \(2 \times 1600\). For individuals with \(M N\) genotype, there will be one \(M\) allele and one \(N\) allele for each individual. This means there are 4800 \(M\) alleles and 4800 \(N\) alleles from the individuals with the \(M N\) genotype.

Calculate the total number of alleles in the population

To find the total number of alleles in the population, we need to add the total number of \(M\) and \(N\) alleles. Since each individual carries two alleles, we simply multiply the total number of individuals (10,000) by 2: Total number of alleles = \(2 \times 10000 = 20000\)

Calculate the frequency of M alleles and N alleles

To find the frequency of \(M\) and \(N\) alleles, we will divide the total number of each allele by the total number of alleles in the population. Frequency of \(M\) alleles: \((2 \times 3600 + 4800) / 20000 = 12000 / 20000 = 0.6\) Frequency of \(N\) alleles: \((2 \times 1600 + 4800) / 20000 = 8000 / 20000 = 0.4\) So, the frequencies of the \(M\) and \(N\) alleles in the population are 0.6 and 0.4, respectively.