Question

Question #58899

Answer 1

The Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium is as follows:

Alleles: `p+q=1`

`p="frequency of the dominant allele"`
`q="frequency of the recessive allele"`

Genotypes: `p^2+2pq+p^2=1`

`p^2="frequency of homozygous dominant genotype"`
`2pq="frequency of heterozygous genotype"`
`q^2="frequency of homozygous recessive genotype"`

Note that the equilibrium is hardly foolproof: it is only perfectly true when the following criteria are met:

1. mutation is not occurring
2. natural selection is not occurring
3. the population is infinitely large
4. all members of the population breed
5. all mating is totally random
6. everyone produces the same number of offspring
7. there is no migration in or out of the population

(http://anthro.palomar.edu/synthetic/synth_2.htm)