Reference no: EM132743768

The "Spirit Bear" or Kermode bear is a pure white mutant of the American black bear that is found on Princess Royal Island off the central BC coast. First Nations all along the coast believe in the special powers of the bear and hold it in high regard. The following problems study the frequency of the normal dark allele and the recessive white allele. For the purposes of these problems assume A is the allele for black fur and a is the allele for white fur.

• If 45 of 75 bears in a local Princess Royal Island population have the recessive phenotype of white fur, what is the frequency of the recessive allele in the bear's gene pool?
• What percentage of the population of bears are heterozygotes?
• How many bears are pure-breeding for the black phenotype?
• If ten years ago, only 24 of 77 bears were white, has microevolution occurred? Justify your answer.