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To: RAT Patrol
While technicaly being theoretical, the equation actually does predict frequencies of alleles in a large enough populations to a reasonably accurate degree. I tend to agree with you though, that if there is only one recessive gene combination that causes "gayness," then, since they do not normally reproduce, they wouldn't pass on the gene and the frequency would decrease. However, if "gayness" is caused by a combination of different alleles, all inocuous in and of themsevles, only expressing "gayness" in combination, then each separate allele would remain in the population passed by carriers, only to manifest "gayness" in rare instances.

That's the best I got. :-)

230 posted on 02/06/2003 10:49:08 AM PST by realpatriot71 (legalize freedom!)
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To: realpatriot71
That's the best I got. :-)

Not bad. If I can think of a hole to punch in it I will. LOL In the meantime, it's been fun. Thanks for the conversation. I've learned a lot.

231 posted on 02/06/2003 10:53:07 AM PST by RAT Patrol
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To: realpatriot71
I now have a reply.

The formula:

Consider a population whose gene pool contains the alleles A and a. Hardy and Weinberg assigned the letter p to the frequency of the dominant allele A and the letter q to the frequency of the recessive allele a. Since the sum of all the alleles must equal 100%, then p + q = 1. They then reasoned that all the random possible combinations of the members of a population would equal (p+q)2 or p2+ 2pq + q2. The frequencies of A and a will remain unchanged generation after generation if the following conditions are met:....

You said: if "gayness" is caused by a combination of different alleles, all inocuous in and of themsevles, only expressing "gayness" in combination, then each separate allele would remain in the population passed by carriers, only to manifest "gayness" in rare instances.

But that would still change the equation and eventually lower the gay population (assuming it could get as large as it is to begin with). It might take longer, I'm not sure. But it wouldn't remain constant if the only thing that makes gays "gay" is genetics.

Why? Because it would change the equation from :(p+q)2 or p2+ 2pq + q2 to: p2 + 2pq + .90(q2). In other words, the q2 factor would be constantly reduced by the percentage of gays in the population (I assumed 10 percent for math ease). Each and every contributing gene would fall under this exact same curse. Eventually, those genes -- even if there were hundreds of them -- would decline, at least until gayness were eliminated. At the time gayness no longer exists, the genes could then thrive on the Hardy and Weinburg Equilibrium theory.

That means there MUST be other contributing factors other than genetics. The extent to which genetics is involved is the exact extent at which the gay population would naturally decline. That's just unbiased math and science.

293 posted on 02/07/2003 12:46:26 PM PST by RAT Patrol
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