Question

A population of rabbits was divided up based upon the color of their fur, represented by a single locus with two alleles (B for the dominant brown allele, and b for the recessive white allele):

BB (brown fur) 100
Bb (brown fur) 88
bb (white fur) 25
Calculate the allelic frequencies of the fur color locus for this population of rabbits.
a)B = 0.68, b = 0.32
b)BB= 0.47, Bb = 0.41, bb = 0.12
c)B = 0.47, b = 0.53
d)B = 0.75, b = 0.32
e)B = 0.44, b = 0.27

Answer 1

The allelic frequencies of the fur color locus for this population of rabbits are approximately B = 0.68 and b = 0.32. This calculation is based on counting the alleles from the genotypes provided and dividing by the total number of alleles in the population.

Step-by-step explanation:

To calculate the allelic frequencies of the fur color locus for this population of rabbits, we first need to count the total number of each allele. We have 100 BB rabbits (which means 200 B alleles), 88 Bb rabbits (88 B alleles and 88 b alleles), and 25 bb rabbits (50 b alleles). We sum these up to find the total number of B alleles is 200 + 88 = 288, and for b alleles, we have 88 + 50 = 138.

Next, we calculate the total number of alleles, which is twice the number of individuals because each rabbit has two alleles for this gene locus. Thus, we have (100 + 88 + 25) × 2 = 426 alleles in total.

The allelic frequency is calculated by dividing the number of a specific allele by the total number of alleles. So the frequency of allele B is 288 / 426 ≈ 0.68, and the frequency of allele b is 138 / 426 ≈ 0.32.