If a small founder population of 12 people ends up on a small island, and one member of the population had a mutation that creates a new allele, what is the likelihood that the allele will be eliminated from the population? Enter your answer as a percentage (not decimal), omit the percent sign however.

Question

Biology

Elliot Dorsey

6 February, 09:55

If a small founder population of 12 people ends up on a small island, and one member of the population had a mutation that creates a new allele, what is the likelihood that the allele will be eliminated from the population? Enter your answer as a percentage (not decimal), omit the percent sign however.

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Answers (1)

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Tara Turner · Answer 1

A Proximity of 92 percentage may likely be eliminated from the population.

Explanation:

This is based on the principle of genetic drift which states that the allele frequency in a population changes from generation to generation. Sometimes there in a loss of alleles and otherwise there is a fixation or rise.

If there is a probability of an allele being fixed we have to calculate the initial frequency of the mutation.

Mutation fixing probability = No. mutation alleles / total Number of alleles

= 1/12 = 0.083

Therefore the probability of the allele getting eliminated is

Elimination probability = 1 - mutation fixing probability

= 1 - 0.083 = 0.917 = 91.7 % = 92 %