Allele Frequency

Allele frequency or Gene frequency is the proportion of all copies of a gene that is made up of a particular gene variant (allele). In other words, it is the number of copies of a particular allele divided by the number of copies of all alleles at the genetic place (locus) in a population. It can be expressed for example as a percentage. In population genetics, allele frequencies are used to depict the amount of genetic diversity at the individual, population, and species level. It is also the relative proportion of all alleles of a gene that are of a designated type.

Given the following:

1. a particular locus on a chromosome and the gene occupying that locus
2. a population of N individuals carrying n loci in each of their somatic cells (e.g. two loci in the cells of diploid species, which contain two sets of chromosomes)
3. different alleles of the gene exist
4. one allele exists in a copies

then the allele frequency is the fraction or percentage of all the occurrences of that locus that is occupied by a given allele and the frequency of one of the alleles is a/(n*N).

For example, if the frequency of an allele is 20% in a given population, then among population members, one in five chromosomes will carry that allele. Four out of five will be occupied by other variant(s) of the gene.

Note that for diploid genes the fraction of individuals that carry this allele may be nearly two in five (36%). The reason for this is that if the allele distributes randomly, then the binomial theorem will apply: 32% of the population will be heterozygous for the allele (i.e. carry one copy of that allele and one copy of another in each somatic cell) and 4% will be homozygous (carrying two copies of the allele). Together, this means that 36% of diploid individuals would be expected to carry an allele that has a frequency of 20%. However, alleles distribute randomly only under certain assumptions, including the absence of selection. When these conditions apply, a population is said to be in Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium.

The frequencies of all the alleles of a given gene often are graphed together as an allele frequency distribution histogram, or allele frequency spectrum. Population genetics studies the different "forces" that might lead to changes in the distribution and frequencies of alleles—in other words, to evolution. Besides selection, these forces include genetic drift, mutation and migration.