STAB2312

POPULATION GENETICS
PROBLEM SETS
MUTATION
8.1

Why is it that the mutation rates are usually low? Even though the mutation rates are low, why is
it that mutation has never been ignored in population genetics?

8.2

How many generations would it take for pt 0.7 given po = 0.8 and u = 10-4 ?

8.3

Suppose that allele A is initially fixed in a population, and that it has a mutation rate of 10 -5 to a,
and that there is no back mutation. What will be the frequency of allele a in the population after
two generations?

8.4

If there were back mutation in the above case, at the same mutation rate, what would the result
be?

8.5

If is the mutation rate per generation at a locus, the how many mutants are produced each
generation in a diploid population of size N?

8.6

Using the answer in question 5, work out the probability that a fixed allele is a mutant, or in other
words what is the prob. a mutant is fixed in a population?

8.7

The forward mutation rate for piebald spotting in guinea pigs is 8 10 5; the reverse mutation rate
is 2 106. Assuming that no other evolutionary forces are present, what is the expected
frequency of the allele for piebald spotting in a population that is in mutational equilibrium?

MIGRATION
9.1

What do you understand by Wahlund effect?

9.2

Give reasons why is it that the amount of genetically effective movement (gene flow) is often less
than the movement of individual organisms.

9.3

If the population sizes are large that genetic drift may be ignored and if all alleles are selectively
neutral, what is the effect of gene flow?

9.4

If the population sizes are so small even if alleles are selectively neutral that drift is important,
what would be the consequence of gene flow among such populations?

9.5

Wahlund effect measures the extent of subdivision of the populations but

another measure of population subdivision is Wrights Fst statistics. What is
the correspondence between F statistic and Wahlund effect? (We did not
discuss this in class but I would you to find this information online).

9.6

In German cockroaches, curved wing (cv) is recessive to normal wing (cv+).

Bill, who is raising cockroaches in his dorm room, finds that the frequency of

the gene for curved wings in his cockroach population is 0.6. In the
apartment of his friend Joe, the frequency of the gene for curved wings is 0.2.
One day Joe visits Bill in his dorm room, and several cockroaches jump out of
Joes hair and join the population in Bills room. Bill estimates that 10% of the
cockroaches in his dorm room now consists of individual roaches that jumped
out of Joes hair. What will be the new frequency of curved wings among
cockroaches in Bills room?
9.7

A population of water snakes is found on an island in Lake Erie. Some of the

snakes are banded and some are unbanded; banding is caused by an
autosomal allele that is recessive to an allele for no bands. The frequency of
banded snakes on the island is 0.4, whereas the frequency of banded snakes
on the mainland is 0.81. One summer, a large number of snakes migrate from
the mainland to the island. After this migration, 20% of the island population
consists of snakes that came from the mainland.

9.8

What factors affect the magnitude of change in allelic frequencies due to

migration?

9.9

Consider a population of 100 mice on an island, with allele frequencies B = 0.20 for black
coat color, and b = 0.80 for white coat color, Black, B, is dominant to white, b, and the
population is in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Twenty-five homozygous black mice from
the mainland float to the island on an uprooted tree after a storm. What are the allele
frequencies now? What were the genotype frequencies before and after the migration
event? Is the population in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium? How long will it take it to get
back into Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium if no more mice arrive, and if there are no other
forces affecting allele frequencies?

9.10

Consider three subpopulations with 2 alleles at frequencies p and q,

p

Subpop 1:

0.7

0.3

Subpop 2:

0.5

0.5

Subpop 3:

0.3

0.7

Calculate FST where