Hardy-Weinberg law

[hahr-dee-wahyn-burg]

noun Genetics.

a principle stating that in an infinitely large, randomly mating population in which selection, migration, and mutation do not occur, the frequencies of alleles and genotypes do not change from generation to generation.

Origin of Hardy-Weinberg law

1945–50; named after English mathematician G. H. Hardy and German physician Wilhelm Weinberg (1862–1937), who independently formulated it

Also called binomial law, Hardy-Weinberg distribution.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

hardy-weinberg law in Medicine

[-wīn′bərg]

A fundamental principle in population genetics stating that the genotype frequencies and gene frequencies of a large, randomly mating population remain constant provided immigration, mutation, and selection do not take place.

hardy-weinberg law in Science

[här′dē-wīn′bûrg]

A fundamental principle in population genetics stating that the genotype frequencies and gene frequencies of a large, randomly mating population remain constant provided immigration, mutation, and selection do not take place. In the simple case of a chromosome locus with two alleles, A and a, with frequencies p and q respectively, the frequency of the homozygotic genotype AA under random mating will be p2, of heterozygotic Aa will be 2pq, and of homozygotic aa will be q2. The law is named for its formulators, British mathematician Godfrey Harold Hardy (1877-1947) and German physician Wilhelm Weinberg (1862-1937).