Question

Can someone please tell me how to do this and how to find the answer? I will give a medal

In one kind of butterfly, brown color is caused by a dominant allele, B, and a white color is caused by a recessive allele, b,. The table shows the observed numbers of phenotypes in a population of 100 butterflies.

Phenotype______Number Of Individuals
Brown 84
White 16

What is the frequency of the heterozygous genotype in this population of butterflies?
A: 0.24
B: 0.36
C: 0.48
D: 0.60

(I know it is not A or D because I got those answers wrong, and after attempting twice at the question and not getting it correct, I need some help with this.)

Answer 1

I think its b... NOT COMPLETELY SURE. it think it is though.

Answer 2

This uses the hardy weinburg equation

p^2+2pq+q^2=1 where p= number with dominant allele and q=number with recessive

Answer 3

therefore q^2=16/100, (that term contains only recessive alleles so you can tell it's the number with bb which is 16 out of the 100)
therefore q= 0.4 (square root of 16/100)
P+q=1
therefore p=0.6
2pq represents the heterozygous proportion of the population.
so 2*0.6*0.4= 0.48

I know it's pretty complicated, so you have any more questions on it, I can try help explain it again :)

Answer 4

Thank you @Lockolotl