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Evolution: Can the genotype frequencies change, but the allele frequencies remain constant?

Biology Asked on December 27, 2020

If a population isn’t evolving because it’s in Hardy-Weinberg (HW) equilibrium, then I know that both genotype and allele frequencies must stay constant.

My question is, can evolution still not occur even if Hardy-Weinberg conditions aren’t met? In all of my books, the conclusion seems to be that if HW conditions are met, then evolution doesn’t occur. However, they don’t clarify if HW conditions being met is both a necessary and sufficient condition for evolution to not occur (they only imply that it’s sufficient).

Any thoughts?

2 Answers

Where do you get that populations aren't evolving?

A population might be in HWE for a particular trait if there is no selection on that trait, but that doesn't mean that there is no selection or drift happening on any trait!

Answered by swbarnes2 on December 27, 2020

Let me focus on the necessary and sufficient part: such a language is suitable in mathematics, but does not really have much meaning in evolutionary/statistical context. Instead we talk about rejecting the null hypothesis, which does not mean accepting the alternative hypothesis. Equally, a failure to reject the null hypothesis does not mean that this hypothesis is true.

Hardy-Weinberg is a null model of evolution with about a dozen of assumptions. It is not a model of "no evolution", but rather a model of how evolution happens all the time (but it seems like "no evolution" in the sense that not much interesting is happening). Rejecting this null model/hypothesis means that some of its assumptions are violated. However, if the genotype frequencies do satisfy HWE, it doesn't automatically mean that the assumptions of this model are satisfied.

Answered by Vadim on December 27, 2020

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