BIO170 General Biology I

L. Freeman

Hardy-Weinberg and Natural Selection with M & M’s Lab

Objectives: After completing this lab, a student will:

1. Understand the concepts of allele frequency, genotype frequency and phenotype

frequency in a population.

2. Understand the concept of a Hardy-Weinberg population.

3. Understand the principles of Genetic Drift and Natural Selection.

4. Practice collecting and interpreting data.

5. Write an Introduction to a Scientific Paper

6. Use proper documentation for research.

For this lab, work in groups of 2

Part 1 – Hardy-Weinberg Populations

1) Obtain a bag of M&Ms, a paper bag and a coin.

2) Separate out the brown and red M & M’s from the bag (you could use any two colors…

I’m just choosing brown and red).

3) Each M&M represents one allele for a color gene in a population. Let’s say that there are

2 allele types – red and brown! We can also make the assumption that brown is dominant

to red.

4) We will create a population of 50 individuals. 13 individuals are homozygous brown, 25

individuals are heterozygous brown and 12 individuals are red.

5) How many alleles does each individual carry? ____________

6) How many total alleles do we need to create this population? ____________

7) Lay out pairs of alleles on a table which represent each individual in the population.

8) How many brown alleles are there in the population altogether? _________________

9) What proportion of total alleles is this? (Divide the total number of brown alleles by the

total number of alleles). This number is “p” in the Hardy-Weinberg equation.

10) p = ___________. This is the allele frequency of brown alleles in your population.

11) How many red alleles are there in the population altogether? _____________

12) What proportion of total alleles is this? (Divide the total number of red alleles by the total

number of alleles). This number is “q” in the Hardy-Weinberg equation.

BIO170 General Biology I

L. Freeman

13) q = ___________. This is the allele frequency of red alleles in your population.

14) The proportion of brown alleles (p) and the proportion of red alleles (q) should equal 1.

Check to see that your values of p + q = 1.

15) In a Hardy-Weinberg population, random mating is assumed. This means that what an

individual looks like or behaves like has no bearing on the chances that their alleles are

represented in the next generation. In essence then, the individuals do not exist! A

population is literally, a collection of alleles. To represent this, take all the alleles from

the individuals in front of you and put them in a paper bag. This bag is your population!

It is all the alleles that exist in the population regardless of how they are arranged in

individuals.

16) Without looking, draw an allele out of the bag. What color did you draw? ___________

17) Put the allele back and shake the bag. Draw another allele. What color did you draw?

_________

18) Repeat the last two steps a number of times. Do you have a feel for what the chances of

drawing a particular color allele is? What is the probability of drawing a red allele?

_______

19) What is the probability of drawing a brown allele? _________

20) Notice that these probabilities are the same as p and q! Allele frequencies in a population

are also the probability of the allele being drawn from the population!

21) Drawing 2 alleles at random is equivalent to random mating in the population. Alleles

combine at random in the population to make the next population. Try this by drawing 2

M & M’s from the bag. This allele pair represents an individual in the next generation!

22) Hardy-Weinberg says that you can predict what the chances of having any one particular

genotype being drawn from the allele pool. The chances of drawing a homozygous

brown individual is the probability of drawing a brown allele (p) and the probability of

drawing a 2nd brown allele (p). Mathematically, the probability of drawing 2 brown

alleles is (p x p) or (p2). This value also represents the genotype frequency of

homozygous brown individuals in the next generation!

23) For your example: p2 = _________.

24) Likewise: the chances of drawing a homozygous red individual is the probability of

drawing a red allele (q) and the probability of drawing a 2nd red allele (q).

Mathematically, the probability of drawing 2 red alleles is (q x q) or (q2). This value also

represents the genotype frequency of homozygous red individuals in the next generation!

25) For your example: q2 = _________.

BIO170 General Biology I

L. Freeman

BIO170 General Biology I

L. Freeman

26) Now let’s consider the probability of drawing a heterozygote. Here there are 2

possibilities. Either you draw a brown allele first (p) and then a red allele (q) or you draw

a red allele first (q) and then a brown allele (p). Mathematically, the probability of

drawing a heterozygote is (p x q) and (q x p) or (2 x p x q). This value also represents the

genotype frequency of heterozygous individuals in the next generation!

27) For your example: 2pq = _________.

28) The probability of pulling any pair of alleles should equal 1 (or 100%). This means that

p2 + 2pq + q2 = 1. Check to see if your values add up to 1.

29) What this means is that for any population that you know the allele frequencies for, you

know what proportion of the population is homozygous dominant, heterozygous, and

homozygous recessive! Of course, this is provided that the population in a Hardy-

Weinberg population.

30) There are 5 conditions under which populations conform to Hardy-Weinberg. What are

they? (Hint: look at your lecture notes or chapter 25 in your text)

a. __________________________________

b. __________________________________

c. __________________________________

d. __________________________________

e. __________________________________

Part 2 – Genetic Drift

31) Let’s see what happens if your population experiences genetic drift. What is the

definition of genetic drift? __________________________________________

32) Recreate your initial population of 50 individuals: 13 individuals are homozygous

brown, 25 individuals are heterozygous brown and 12 individuals are red. Put all of the

alleles in a paper bag.

33) Let’s suppose a tidal wave wipes out 50% of your population. To model this, reach into

your bag and blindly grab one individual (2 alleles) and remove it from the population.

(You will need these removed alleles later in the lab so do not eat them or throw them out

yet!) Record the phenotype and genotype of that individual in Table 1 below.

BIO170 General Biology I

L. Freeman

34) Continue to randomly remove individuals until 25 have been removed. Record the

phenotype and genotype of each removed.

Table 1: Phenotype and Genotype of Individuals killed by a Tidal Wave

Individual

removed 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Color

(phenotype)

Genotype:

Homozygous

or

heterozygous?

Individual

removed 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

Color

(phenotype)

Genotype:

Homozygous

or

heterozygous?

35) Calculate the values of p and q in the remaining population (hint: look back to numbers

5-14 above)

p = ____________________________

q = ____________________________

36) Are the new values the same as the original p and q for the population?

37) Has evolution occurred? Explain.

BIO170 General Biology I

L. Freeman

Part 3 – Natural Selection

38) Let’s see what happens if your population experiences natural selection. What is the

definition of natural selection? __________________________________________

39) Recreate your initial population of 50 individuals: 13 individuals are homozygous

brown, 25 individuals are heterozygous brown and 12 individuals are red. Lay the alleles

out on a table.

40) Let’s assume that the red individuals (phenotypes) are easy prey and that the brown

phenotype blends in with the environment… so is protected. In any one generation, 50%

of the red individuals fall prey to the predator (in other words they die and cannot

reproduce!)

41) To model what happens in the first generation, you want to remove ½ of the individuals

who are red.

a. How many individuals are killed? __________

b. How many alleles must be removed from the population? ___________

c. What alleles exactly are removed? ___________ [You can be the predator and

eat those individuals!!]

42) Now we have to replace those individuals so our population is back up to 50. Let’s say

that the remaining individuals mate randomly. To model this, put all the remaining

alleles in a bag.

43) Select two alleles for the first individual from the bag. Then select two more alleles for

the next individual from the bag. (You should have one of the following crosses: BB x

BB, BB x Bb, Bb x Bb, BB x bb, Bb x bb, bb x bb).

44) Write the cross that you have. _______________________

45) Each parent passes one of their two alleles on to their child. Decide which allele in each

parent will be “heads” in a coin toss and which will be “tails”. Flip your coin once for

each parent.

a. What color allele does mom pass on? _____________

b. What color allele does dad pass on? __________________

46) Those two alleles represent the genotype for the new child. Write the genotype of the

child. ________________

BIO170 General Biology I

L. Freeman

47) Place the parent’s alleles (not the offspring’s) back into the bag. (You should be putting

4 alleles into the bag).

48) Repeat the mating game for 5 more offspring. This should replace the 6 individuals

killed by the predator!! Write the genotypes that you added to the population.

________________

49) Your population is now at the next time period (or generation). You should have a total

of 50 individuals. How many of each genotype do you have in your population? (This

should be the original number of BB and Bb, ½ the number of original bb plus whatever

the kids were). _____________________

50) How many alleles are in your population? _____________________

51) Count the number of each color allele in your bag. _______________

52) What is your new value of p (remember this is a proportion)? _____________

53) What is your new value of q? __________________

54) What proportion of BB is there in your population? (This should be the number of BB

individuals divided by 50 (the total number of individuals)). _______________

55) What proportion of Bb is there in your population? ________________

56) What proportion of bb is there in your population? ________________

57) Does the proportion of BB = p2? ______________

58) Does the proportion of Bb = 2pq? ____________

59) Does the proportion of bb = q2? ________________

60) If the proportions are not equal to Hardy-Weinberg, the population is evolving! In this

case it should be evolving due to natural selection.

61) Repeat the experiment with your new population. Start by having ½ of the red

individuals die.

62) For each generation, keep track of the numbers of each genotype in the table below.

63) What kind of selection have you just demonstrated? (Hint – it’s one of the 3 types you

studied in Chapter 25/26.)

BIO170 General Biology I

L. Freeman

Generation Homozygous brown

(BB)

Heterozygous brown

(Bb)

Homozygous red (bb)

1 13 25 12

Assignment:

Due one week following the lab in Google Drive. Label this BIO170_lastname_evolution

Create a document that models an introduction section of a scienitific paper describing the topics

you investigated in this lab. Here are some guidelines:

The introduction briefly introduces the topic of your study and your study organism.

The first paragraph should present the aims or goals of your study, and should provide a brief

and accurate idea of what the study is about. In general you are answering the questions:

What is this study about?

Why do we care?

Subsequent paragraphs (2-6) review the current literature on the topic, state the hypotheses, and

develop rationale for the research. Specific relevant information should include:

Relevant prior studies/observation of what trying to explain

Factors that may contribute to explanation (introducing independent & dependent

variables)

Specific ideas of what factors may explain observation (developing hypothesis)

In the introduction, you might also wish to present the deductive reasoning that leads to the

results predicted if particular hypotheses are true.

Make sure you cite appropriate literature in this section using MLA format.