Hardy-Weinberg law

Under certain conditions, the population is in a state of genetic equilibrium, that is, its gene pool does not change from generation to generation. This is the equilibrium principle, or Hardy-Weinberg’s law.

In an ideal population, over a number of generations, a constant ratio of the frequencies of genes, homozygotes and heterozygotes remains unchanged.

The ideal population is characterized by the following characteristics:

• the number of individuals is large enough;
• individuals interbreed freely;
• mutations do not occur;
• no migration from neighboring populations;
• there is no natural selection.

Hardy-Weinberg’s law allows you to determine the frequencies of genes and genotypes.

The frequency of the dominant gene A is usually denoted by the letter p, and the frequency of the recessive gene a by the letter q.