gene for pea pod colour has two alleles. The dominant allele, G, is associated with the dominant trait of green pea pod colour. The recessive allele, g, is associated with the recessive trait of yellow pea pod colour. For many years, there has been a large collection of pea plants with a mixture of yellow and green
The gene for pea pod colour has two alleles. The dominant allele, G, is associated with the dominant trait of green pea pod colour. The recessive allele, g, is associated with the recessive trait of yellow pea pod colour.
For many years, there has been a large collection of pea plants with a mixture of yellow and green pea pod colours in a savannah. But there has been a recent infestation of wild rabbits with a preference for eating plants with yellow pea pods. Assume that at the start of the infestation, the alleles in the pea plant population were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium.
(a) What does it mean for the alleles in the pea plant population to be in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium?
(b) What is expected to happen to the allele frequency of the g allele in the subsequent pea generations after the rabbits have been introduced? Explain your answer using terms from Darwinian evolution.
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