Question

On a separate sheet of paper, plug in the following values for p and q into the Hardy-Weinberg equation (p²+2pq+q²=1):

p=0.5, q=0.5

p=0.6, q=0.4

p=0.7, q=0.3

p=0.8, q=0.2

p=0.9, q=0.2

p=1.0, q=0.0

You have just modeled genetic drift acting on a population. After you have plugged these values in, what trend do you see with regards to the frequencies of the homozygous q (q²) and heterozygous (2pq) genotypes? What does this tell you about genetic drift?

Answer 1

		P2	2PQ	Q2
	1	25%	50%	25%
	2	36%	48%	16%
	3	49%	42%	9%
	4	64%	32%	4%
	5	81%	36%	4%
	6	100%	0%	0%

As we can see that value of pq and q2 are decreasing... This signifies the gene frequency is changing due to genetic drift. There are only homozygous p individuals left and entire population having q allele has either migrated or due to change in environmental condition or any natural calamity has led to complete eradication of population having q allele.