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Population Genetics Simulation

Name: Brenden Chapman

Go to the Population Genetics Simulation at Biology Simulation.

1. Take a few minutes to read the Introduction information and play with the available variables to
see how the simulation works.

2. Select your experimental question:

How does survival chance affect change to allele frequency?

3. Write a hypothesis:

A higher survival chance will result in a higher red allele frequency after 5 generations

4. Write your procedure. Be sure to specify the tested range of your independent variable, the
settings for controlled variables, and number of trials.

Part 1 (high) Population size 10

Population size 10 Number of Generations 5
Number of Generations 5 Red Allele Starting Frequency -5
Red Allele Starting Frequency -5 Red Survival Chance 0.5
Red Survival Chance 1 Purple Survival Chance 1
Purple Survival Chance 1 Blue Survival Chance 1
Blue Survival Chance 1 Chance of Red to Blue Mutation 0
Chance of Red to Blue Mutation 0 Chance of Blue to Red Mutation 0
Chance of Blue to Red Mutation 0
Run the simulation 5 times and
Run the simulation 5 times and record results
record results
Part 2 (low)
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5. Perform your procedure and record the data in an appropriate chart (you can use Insert Table
on Docs or use a spreadsheet). Account for starting and ending allele frequencies. Make sure
you have a place for each trial and an average.

Red Allele
Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 Trial 5
frequency
High Chance 0.75 0.6 0.45 0.6 0.7
Low Chance 0.3889 0.1111 0.2 0.1667 0.2

6. Insert an appropriate graph to represent your data.

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7. Discussion: Describe your data and attempt to explain why the results occurred.

The data shows that when the chance of survival is lower, the frequency of the allele is most
likely going to also be lower, because the allele is dying a lot easier.

8. Conclusion: Based on the data, answer your original question.

How does survival chance affect change of allele frequency?

The chance of survival dictates how frequent the allele is in the population, if the chance of
survival is low, than the allele corresponding to that population is not going to be as frequent.