A population of Muscovy ducks contains 13 birds with black masks and 37 birds with red masks. Red masks are the dominant trait. What is the frequency of the black allele? What is the frequency of the red allele? What is the frequency of heterozygotes?

Black allele has frequency of 0.14.

              Red allele has frequency of 0.86.

             The frequency of heterozygotes is 0.241

Explanation: Hardy-Weinberg model states the frequency of alleles in a population will stay in equilibrium as long as there are external influences. It is also used to determine alleles frequencies using the following equations:

p represents frequency of dominant allele;

q represents frequency of recessive allele;

2pq is frequency of heterozygotes;

For the frequency of red allele, which is dominant, we can use:

p = 0.86

For the black allele:

q = 0.14

Frequency of heterozygotes is

2pq = 2(0.86)(0.14)

2pq = 0.241

Frequencies for a population of Muscovy ducks are 0.86 for red allele, 0.14 for black allele and 0.241 for heterozygote.

the diploid number of chromosomes is sometimes represented by the symbol 2n. for the fruit fly, the diploid number is 8, which can be written as 2n = 8, where n represents twice the number of chromosomes in a sperm or egg cell.

the relative atomic mass of an element is the mass of one atom of that element, relative to 1/12th of the mass of a  1212c atom. to convert to an absolute mass in kg, it is necessary to multiply by  1.661×10−271.661×10−27.

the relative atomic mass is roughly equal to the number of neutrons, plus the number of protons, in the nucleus of the atom.

for elements with more than one stable isotope (different types of nucleus with different numbers of neutrons but the same number of protons), the quoted mass is usually the average mass, weighted by the relative abundance of the different isotopes.