In a population where only the total number of individuals with the dominant phenotype is known, how can you calculate the percentage of carriers and homozygous recessives?

Key Concepts

Phenotype and Genotype

Phenotype refers to the observable traits of an organism, such as physical appearance, while genotype refers to the genetic makeup that determines these traits. In this context, the dominant phenotype can be expressed by both homozygous dominant (AA) and heterozygous (Aa) genotypes, whereas the homozygous recessive (aa) genotype corresponds to the recessive phenotype.

Hardy-Weinberg Principle

The Hardy-Weinberg Principle provides a mathematical framework for understanding genetic variation in a population. It states that allele and genotype frequencies will remain constant from generation to generation in the absence of evolutionary influences. This principle can be used to calculate the frequencies of different genotypes based on the known frequencies of phenotypes.

Carrier Frequency

Carrier frequency refers to the proportion of individuals in a population who carry one copy of a recessive allele but do not express the recessive phenotype. In the context of the question, calculating the percentage of carriers involves determining the frequency of heterozygous individuals (Aa) based on the total number of individuals with the dominant phenotype and the known frequency of homozygous recessives.