Question

Which of these populations could meet the criteria required for Hardy - Weinberg equilibrium?

• A. A population of about 100,000 wild cats mate randomly and stay in the same area; their mutation rate is negligible and their environment contains no factors that select for specific traits
• B. A population of over 50,000 elephants routinely travels from the western region of Africa to a more central region to deal with seasonal food supply fluctuations
• C. A very large group of people has a near-zero mutation rate, no migration, and a tendency to marry their first cousins
• D. A group of about 40 swans displays random mating and does not migrate to areas with other swan populations

Answer 1

The correct option is A A population of about 100,000 wild cats mate randomly and stay in the same area; their mutation rate is negligible and their environment contains no factors that select for specific traits

Out of all the four cases presented above, in the first scenario, population size is larger than all the others. They are randomly mating and are confined to a place, where the factors that can bring change in the allele frequency like mutation, gene flow, genetic drift etc., are negligible. Hence, the allele frequencies of their gene pool is not expected to change thus keeping it in equilibrium.

In all other three conditions, populations are subjected to at least one condition which can disturb the allele frequency in a population. This may be either small population size, tendency migrate or selective mating.