Question

Around 2005 it was reported in several scientific journals that toads were spontaneously exploding in a small pond in an upscale suburb of Hamburg, Germany (and no, I’m not making this up). Assume that scientists determine that the exploding phenotype was due to an acute fungal infection; only toads with the homozygous ttgenotype are susceptible to infection by this fungus. If the initial frequency of allele t is 0.56, what is the frequency of this allele one generation after the introduction of this fungus (i.e. q_n+1)? [Assume no mutation occurs and that exploding will reduce a toad’s fitness (W) to 0.]

Answer 1

Allelic frequency of t =1-T = 1- 0.6409= 0.3591 ~ 0.36

The answer is 0.36