Why should we care if a population is in HardyWeinberg equil

Why should we care if a population is in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium at a locus? What does it mean if a population is in HWE for a locus? What can it tell us if it is not? How can testing for HWE generate hypotheses about how a population is evolving? Can you think of any applications of this for medicine? For conservation biology?

Solution

Explanation :- A population is under Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium if there is no evolutionary processesa like natural selection, mutation, genetic drift acting on it. Evolution can occur only when a population is under selection or mutation etc. Thus evolution is the departure from Hardy Weinberg equilibrium. Thus if a population is under Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium it means there would be no evolution or the population would remain same generation after generation which is not good as diversity would decrease if population does not change over time. For conservation biology the species that does not change with time have maximum chances of extinction as the population does not develop new alleles that provide it advantage to face the extreme conditions of environment. Thus for a population to exist it must evolve througj rhe process of natural selection.