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Blue Skin Allele

Devise two different scenarios that would increase the frequency of the blue skin allele: one should be for a homozygous condition, the other a heterozygous condition. For a real world example; review the information about Sickle cell anemia and Malaria.



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In evolution, an allele's frequency increases if it confers an advantage upon the individual's who possess the allele. So let's look at the blue skin allele.

In the homozygous condition, the individual will have two copies of the blue skin allele. We don't know if it is dominant or recessive, but that is not important. What is important is that the homozygous condition confers an advantage AND does not confer any disadvantage. A good example of this would be a case in which being blue provides good camouflage. Let's say the blue-skinned creature lives in water, which makes being blue a benefit to say, being green. In this case, blue individuals are more likely to survive and reproduce, which ...

Solution Summary

A blue skin allele is examined.