the static allele frequency, leading to extinction of cheetahs is related to....

[Toothguy80]

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genetic equilibrium.......the answer in Achiever said that it had to do with hardy weinberg theory.

Someone please explain, what is genetic equilibrium, what is static frequency? I have never seen these before in my life?😱

 

[Syrah]

The Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium is the genetic equilibrium; it defines a population that is not evolving (if you look at the assumptions from the HWE you can see why). Therefore the static part refers to time when the population is not evolving and stays at its present form (e.g. no mutations, etc)

 

[Toothguy80]

Ok, but why is it threating to make cheetahs go extinct?

So what if they dont evolve, that doesnt mean that they are going to go extinct, does it?

 

[Syrah]

Say there was a certain disease that was specific to one allele of the cheetah. Now because the cheetah's have a static frequency/genetic equilibrium, which means their alleles are all the same, then this disease would wipe out all of the cheetahs.

However, if there wasn't a genetic equilibrium and the cheetahs had all different kinds of alleles (because of random mating, mutation, etc), then the disease would kill to a smaller extent rather than wipe them all out.

Hope that makes sense.

 

[Toothguy80]

Hardy W consists of random mating, so I think you just meant mutation,

But I get it now, thanks

 

[Syrah]

Actually the HWE consists of anything that would cause gene equilibrium, so besides random mating, it includes no mutations, no migrations, and no selection (and a couple more).

 

[circumspect]

What can we do to save the cheetahs??