Origin and Evolution of Life — BIOLOGY STD 12 Science — Question
Maharashtra BoardEnglish MediumSTD 12 ScienceBIOLOGYOrigin and Evolution of Life5 Marks
Question
What is Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium? Explain it in brief.
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Answer
Hardy and Weinberg were two scientists who proposed a concept of genetic equilibrium popularly known as Hardy- Weinberg principle or equilibrium.
This principle states that gene, allele or genotype frequencies remain the same from generation to generation unless disturbed by factors like mutation, non-random mating, genetic drift, etc.
For explaining the concept of equilibrium they assumed that there are two alleles located at a single locus (A and a).
Their respective frequencies are p and q.
The frequency of genotype AA is p, for 2Aa is 2pq and for aa is q.
The equilibrium equation is p² + 2pq + q² = 1
It says that if sum total of gene frequencies is 1, then sum total of genotype frequencies is also equal to 1. When the equilibrium is disturbed then only evolution occurs.
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