Big Idea Assessment

1. In addition to the designation of an A, B, AB, or O blood type, a positive or negative is also typically denoted. This symbol corresponds to the Rh factor, specifically the D Rh factor. People are said to be Rh+ if they have a dominant D allele, whereas people are said to be Rh– if they are homozygous recessive. Given the following data about a population of 6000 individuals and that the population is in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, determine the number of individuals who are heterozygous for this allele.

Rh + 4680

Rh - 1320

2. Sickle-cell trait is a blood disorder in which a recessive allele results in the production of an abnormal hemoglobin molecule. People who are homozygous recessive for this trait have the disease sickle-cell anemia; however, individuals who are heterozygous for this trait have an increased resistance to malaria over people with normal hemoglobin. Given that 2% of individuals in a population are affected with sickle-cell anemia, what percentage of individuals would have higher malaria resistance?