QUARTER FINALS ROUND 2 SPEED RACE
2025
St. Augustine's College (AUGUSCO): 41 points
Abetifi Presby SHS: 30 points
St. John's School: 21 points
QUESTION
Name the principle that predicts how gene frequency will be transmitted (and remain stable) in a population.
ANSWER: Hardy-Weinberg principle
EXPLANATION
The Hardy-Weinberg principle states that allele and genotype frequencies in a population remain constant from generation to generation in the absence of evolutionary influences (mutation, migration, selection, genetic drift, and non-random mating), providing a null-model baseline against which real population changes can be measured.
PRACTICE QUESTIONS
1. Write the Hardy-Weinberg equation for allele frequencies.
ANSWER: p plus q equals 1.
2. Write the Hardy-Weinberg equation for genotype frequencies.
ANSWER: p squared plus 2pq plus q squared equals 1.
3. State three conditions needed for Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium.
ANSWER: A large population, random mating and no mutation, migration or selection.
4. If q squared is 0.04, what is q?
ANSWER: 0.2.
5. If q is 0.2, what is the frequency of heterozygotes?
ANSWER: 0.32.
6. What is a gene pool?
ANSWER: All the alleles in a population.
7. What is allele frequency?
ANSWER: The proportion of an allele among all alleles of that gene in a population.
8. What is genetic drift?
ANSWER: Random change in allele frequency, especially in small populations.
9. What is the founder effect?
ANSWER: Reduced genetic variation in a new population started by a few individuals.
10. What is gene flow?
ANSWER: The movement of alleles between populations.
11. How does natural selection affect the equilibrium?
ANSWER: It changes allele frequencies.
12. Who proposed the principle?
ANSWER: Hardy and Weinberg, in 1908.