Reference no: EM132174816

In Papua New Guinea, the natives (the Fore) used to be cannibals and they consumed human flesh in mortuary feasts. Unfortunately for them, this made many in the population susceptible to a prion disease (Kuru) that would cause them to lose cognitive function (in a similar way to Mad Cow disease). Heterozygosity for a common polymorphism in the human prion protein gene (PRNP) conferred relative resistance to prion diseases. Elderly survivors of the kuru epidemic, who had multiple exposures at mortuary feasts, are, in marked contrast to younger unexposed Fore, predominantly PRNP 129 heterozygotes.

Kuru imposed strong balancing selection on the Fore, essentially eliminating PRNP 129 homozygotes. Women over the age of 50 were assessed for their genotypes. In 30 women over the age of 50 that had a history of multiple exposures to mortuary feasts, 4 were homozygous MM, 23 were heterozygous MV, and 3 were homozygous VV (M and V indicate methonine and valine at position 129).

In another sample of unexposed Fore individuals, 140 women under the age of 50, displayed the following genotypes: 31 MM, 72 MV, 37 VV

Calculate the p and q values for each population (the older population of women over 50 and the younger population of women under 50) and determine if each of the populations is in Hardy-Weinberg proportions.