Question

Please Can You help?
In Sardinia, approximately one in every 200 people has β-thalassemia. Using the mathematics from lecture, estimate the following:
• a)The frequency of the β-thalassemia allele in the Sardinian population. Please express your answer as a number between 0 and 1 using one significant digit only.

• b)The frequency of β-thalassemia carriers (genotype Aa) in the Sardinian population. Please express your answer as a number between 0 and 1 using one significant digit only.

Answer 1

a) let the probability of the allele be p
then p*p =1/200
p = 0.07

b)probability of carrier = 2*0.07*(1-0.07) (because any of the two allele can have it)
=0.1302 = 0.1 (approx)

Answer 2

c) req. probability = prob of being a carrier * prob of having the allele in child
= 0.1302*1/2
=0.0651 = 0.07(approx)