Question by Amy P: Another Hardy-Weinberg Problem. Please HELP!!?
After graduation, you and 19 friends build a raft, sailed to a deserted island, and start a new population, totally isolated from the world. Two of your friends carry (heterozygous for) the receive allele , which in homozygotes causes cystic fibrosis.

a. assuming that the frequency of this allele does not chance as the population grows, what will be the instance of cystic fibrosis on the island?

b. calculate how many times grater cystic fibrosis births on the island are vs. the original mainland. The frequency on mainland is .059%.

Best answer:

Answer by Asst Prof
You and your 19 friends have 40 alleles. Since 2 are carriers, there are 2 n alleles and 38 N alleles (where N=a normal allele). So the frequency of n = 2/40 = 0.05 and the frequency of N = 1-0.05 = 0.95. In the future population, the frequency of cystic fibrosis, nn, will be 0.05↑2 = 0.0025 or 0.25%.

If CF on the mainland is 0.059% or 0.00059, then 0.0025/0.00059 = about 4.24 times more CF on the island.

If you know better then please let us know below.

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