Question

What does it indicate when the measured frequency of an allele differs from the expected Hardy-Weinberg value?

Options

• The population is no longer capable of reproducing

• The direction of the difference indicates the extent of evolutionary change

• Mutation rates have increased exponentially

• Random mating has been prevented entirely

Answer 1

When measured allele frequencies deviate from Hardy-Weinberg predictions, the direction and magnitude of the difference indicate the extent and direction of evolutionary change occurring in the population. This allows researchers to infer which evolutionary forces are acting on the population.