You study a diploid population of 100 soapberry bugs These b

You study a diploid population of 100 soapberry bugs. These bugs have different beak lengths. The locus for beak length (B) has 2 alleles, long (L) and short (S). You observe the following genotype frequencies: 5% BL BL, 25% BS BS, 70% BL BS. Is this population of soapberry bugs evolving or is it stable?

a) The population is stable because the observed frequencies are equal to the expected frequencies using the Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium

b) The population is stable even though the observed frequencies are different from the expected frequencies, because you can use the Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium to calculate them

c) The population is evolving because using the Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium, the expected frequencies are 10% BL BL, 40% BS BS, 50% BL BS

d) The population is evolving because using the Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium, the expected frequencies are 16% BL BL, 36% BS BS, 48% BL BS

e) The Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium cannot be used in this case to determine if the population is evolving or not

Solution

The answer is e) The Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium cannot be used in this case to determine if the population is evolving or not