mckenzieplindsay
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About 70% of the human population can taste the bitter chemical phenylthiocarbamide (PTC), which is found in foods like broccoli. The allele, T, for tasting PTC is dominant over the allele, t, for not tasting it. Calculate the allele frequencies using the Hardy-Weinberg equation, where p represents the dominant allele frequency, and q represents the recessive allele frequency. Which of the following is closest to your results?

Answer :

MrBrainalot
The Hardy-Weinberg equation tells us that:

p^2 + 2pq + q^2 = 1

Where p represents the frequency of the T allele  and q represents the frequency of the t allele. p^2 = frequency of AA genotype, 2pq represents frequency of Tt genotype, and q^2 represents the frequency of aa genotype.

We know that p+q = 1 and that 70% of the population can taste the bitter chemical so AA + Aa = 0.7. We know then, that the frequency of the recessive genotype must be 30%, i.e. aa = 0.3. From the hardy-weinberg equation the frequency of the recessive genotype is q^2 so we can now work out the allele frequency q. q = (SQRT) 0.3 = 0.547

p+q = 1 so
p = 1- 0.547 = 0.453

i.e. p, the frequency of dominant allele A is 45.3% and q, the frequency of recessive allele a is 54.7% in the population.

Note. I think there was supposed to be a multiple choice part to the question which was not added. However the above should solve the actual problem.
Ethan722

Answer:

p = 1- 0.547 = 0.453

Explanation:

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