Sickle cell anemia is caused by a recessive allele at a single gene. As we discussed in class, being a homozygote for the sickle cell allele is almost always lethal, but heterozygotes tend to be...

Sickle cell anemia is caused by a recessive allele at a single gene. As we discussed in class, being a homozygote for the sickle cell allele is almost always lethal, but heterozygotes tend to be resistant against malaria although they have a mild form of anemia. Because of this heterozygote advantage, the allele for sickle cell anemia has a frequency of more than 10% in some human populations.

1.     How would present allele frequencies of the sickle cell allele change, if there was no heterozygote advantage or disadvantage (that is, that heterozygotes would be identical to ‘normal’ homozygotes – no malaria resistance, no anemia)? How would the change in sickle cell allele frequencies compare to scenario a (extirpation of malaria)