GNM 3201
Darwin and Mendel
STUDY GUIDE: WILSON AND BOSSERT, RATES OF CHANGE & STATISTICS
Change
1. If you start at your house and drive south 10 miles, how has your distance from home
changed? That is, what is d, where d = distance from home?
2. If you have $500 in your checking account on Monday, and on Thursday you have $85, what is
$? What would $ be if on Thursday you had $5000?
3. If your employer automatically deposits $2000 in your bank account every four weeks, what is
the $/t for your bank account per week? Assume you don't withdraw or add any other $$.
4. If you drive 10 miles in fifteen minutes, what is your d/t in miles per hour?
5. If you have a cat which gives birth to 6 kittens, and then you accept two more kittens from a
neighbor, what is the change in the number of Felis domesticus in your house, (n)?
6. How many kittens would you have to give away to make n = 0?
Growth Rates
7. What is the rate of change d$/dt in the value of $1000 invested at 4% annual interest (assume
continuous compounding of the interest)? What interest rate would give d$/dt = 0?
8. What is the value of that investment after 2.5 years? Hint: use the ex key on your calculator.
Statistics
9. What is the mean of (20, 25, 35, 50)
10. What is the standard deviation for the same data?
GNM 3201
Darwin and Mendel
STUDY GUIDE: WILSON AND BOSSERT, POPULATION GENETICS
PROBLEMS
My son and I used to play a game that used dice that had different numbers of sides. They
included 4, 6, 8, 12 and 20-sided shapes. All were numbered from 1 to the total number of sides.
If you roll one die with four sides and one with eight sides, what is the chance of getting a pair of
threes?
The wrinkled (a) gene occurs at a frequency of 0.55 in a population. What is the frequency of the
round (A) gene, if no other forms are present?
A certain recessive gene (a) occurs at a frequency of 0.05 in the population. What is the
frequency of the other, dominant form of the gene (A) and what are the expected frequencies of
the diploid genotypes (AA, Aa, aa)?
Consider again the round (A) and wrinkled (a) genes. If the frequency of the melanic gene (M)
in a moth population is 0.7, what are the frequencies of the three forms (MM, Mm, mm)?
If 36% of the individuals in a moth population exhibit the recessive trait, speckled white
coloration, what is the frequency of the gene m, for the trait?
If we have a population consisting entirely of 40 AA and 60 aa individuals, what are the
frequencies of the genes A and a?
If we had 150 MM individuals in a population and 50 mm individuals, and if they mated at
random, what would be the frequencies of MM, Mm and mm individuals in the offspring?
Mutational equilibrium (page 44). What is the equilibrium frequency of gene a2 if the mutation
rate () from a1 to a2 is 5 x 10-5 and the mutation rate () from a2 to a1 is 5 x 10-6?
Gene flow (see pages 46-47): What is the amount of change in a generation of the frequency (q)
of an allele where the frequency in one population (q) is 0.3 and in another population (q) is
0.8, if population  gets 0.1 of its individuals in each generation from population 
GNM 3201
Darwin and Mendel
Selection in one generation (page 50): Calculate the selection coefficients for the following
case. Is selection happening? What type?
Genotypes
Number before selection
After selection in same
generation
Survival Rate
Relative Fitness
Selection Coefficient
AA
Aa
aa
2300
1000
1700
1700
300
1000
Selection between one generation and the next generation (page 52): Calculate the selection
coefficients for the following case. Is selection happening? What type?
Genotypes
Number in first
generation (before
selection)
Number expected
in next generation
based on the H-W
formula
Number in second
generation (after
selection)
Corrected Rate of
Increase
Relative fitness
Selection
coefficient
AA
Aa
aa
Total
4000
3000
3000
10000
gene frequencies of
A and a in Gen. 1
10000
4400
2600
3000
10000
Elimination of recessives (page 53): Consider a recessive gene that is lethal when homozygous,
but harmless if the dominant gene is present. Suppose we start out with the frequency of that
gene in a population equal to 0.3. What will the frequency be after 10 generations if only natural
selection affects it?
Mutation and selection (page 61): Consider a recessive gene that is lethal when homozygous,
but harmless if the dominant gene is present. If the mutation rate from the dominant to the
recessive is 0.0005, what will be the equilibrium frequency of the recessive allele, if no other
factors act on the gene frequencies?