• Bring your 2026 application questions to our open office hours with Emil Chuck, PhD, Director of Advising Services for HPSA, and get them answered live. Personal statements, secondaries, interview prep, school list strategy. Sunday, May 17 at 9 p.m. Eastern.

Hardy Weinberg Question

Started by discowisco
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

discowisco

Full Member
10+ Year Member
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Which of the following would cause a population to deviate MOST from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium?

A The population of individuals becomes geographically isolated from another population.
B The population of individuals is very large and mating happens at random.
C A bottleneck kills 30% of the population at random.
D Homozygous recessive individuals are more vulnerable to predators due to their phenotype preventing proper camouflaging

So I eliminated B since that is a part of the HW principles. And I know both A and C effect HW, but the correct answer is D.

Can anyone explain me exactly how D deviates MOST as opposed to A and C?
 
A. there should be no gene flow
C. since the death is at random, it does not pose any selective pressure
D. it presents a selective pressure that disfavors homozygote recessive organisms. This will not result in an "equilibrium"
 
A is a requirement, not a cause of disruption for HWE, in that there should be no emigration/immigration into or out of a population

The keyword in B and C is random. If you kill 30% at random, then the proportion of alleles p and q stay the same.

D is the correct answer in that selective pressure quickly decrease one of the alleles in favour of the other.
 
I got D too for the same reason.


A --> Geographic isolation = No exchange/ change in the genetic pool of the population in question.

C--> Death is random, random is good.

B--> Lol
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Which of the following would cause a population to deviate MOST from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium?

A The population of individuals becomes geographically isolated from another population.
B The population of individuals is very large and mating happens at random.
C A bottleneck kills 30% of the population at random.
D Homozygous recessive individuals are more vulnerable to predators due to their phenotype preventing proper camouflaging

So I eliminated B since that is a part of the HW principles. And I know both A and C effect HW, but the correct answer is D.

Can anyone explain me exactly how D deviates MOST as opposed to A and C?

A would only cause deviation if the geographic isolation resulted in one of the 2 populations being in a different environment (i.e. from a desert to a forest); for instance, if a massive earthquake causes a fissure that splits a population of gophers in 2, then neither population would deviate b/c they would still be in the same environment.

C Would only cause deviation if the 30% reduction was large enough to cause genetic drift; it the population was already large, then the 30% reduction would likely do nothing.


D, by definition, would cause deviation.
 
A would only cause deviation if the geographic isolation resulted in one of the 2 populations being in a different environment (i.e. from a desert to a forest); for instance, if a massive earthquake causes a fissure that splits a population of gophers in 2, then neither population would deviate b/c they would still be in the same environment.

C Would only cause deviation if the 30% reduction was large enough to cause genetic drift; it the population was already large, then the 30% reduction would likely do nothing.


D, by definition, would cause deviation.

I agree completely. Nearly picked B but reasoned that D is better since, as you said, 30% won't cause significant genetic drift.