CategoryHierarchies.com

The Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium is a principle in population genetics that describes how genetic variation remains constant from one generation to the next in an ideal population, assuming no mutation, migration, genetic drift, or natural selection. It states that both allele and genotype frequencies will remain constant in the absence of these evolutionary forces. Named after mathematician Godfrey Hardy and physician Wilhelm Weinberg, this equilibrium is often represented by a simple mathematical equation: p^2 + 2pq + q^2 = 1, where p represents the frequency of one allele and q represents the frequency of the other allele in the population. In the context of mutation, the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium serves as a benchmark for understanding how genetic variation changes over time due to various evolutionary mechanisms.