Assignment 1

1 .		Set up an experiment to help you understand Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and the factors that influence a state of equilibrium in a population. Leave all input parameters at their default values. Based on these conditions, does each moth genotype have an equal chance of survival or is there a selective pressure (positive or negative) on one or more genotypes? Explain your answer.
2 .		Return to the initial page of the simulation if you are still in the Change Inputs view. Find the popup menu, showing the number of generations, in the lower left corner of the screen. Leave generation number set at its default value of 100. Click the Run Experiment button to run this simulation. Look at the allele and genotype frequencies. Is there a change in allele frequency over time? Is there a change in genotype frequency over time? What did you observe? Explain your answers.
3 .		How do the actual genotype frequencies compare to the Hardy-Weinberg predictions? Repeat this experiment at least three or four times to determine if the results from this experiment are consistent.
4 .		Repeat this experiment with a different set of initial genotype frequencies, but before you run the experiment, use the Hardy-Weinberg equation to predict what will happen to this population. What did you discover? Did the results agree with your predictions? Why or why not?
5 .		Repeat the experiment described above and use Chi-square analysis with one degree of freedom to test your prediction. How many generations does it take for a population to reach Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium?
6 .		Can different initial genotype frequencies lead to the same Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium?