A wildlife biologist studied four generations of a population of rare Ethiopian jackals. When the study began, there were 47 jackals in the population, and analysis of microsatellite loci from these animals showed a heterozygote frequency of 0.55. In the second generation, an outbreak of distemper occurred in the population, and only 17 animals survived to adulthood. These jackals produced 20 surviving offspring, which in turn gave rise to 35 progeny in the fourth generation.
(a) What was the effective population size for the four generations of this study?
(b) Based on its effective population size, what is the heterozygote frequency of the jackal population in generation 4?
(c) What is the inbreeding coefficient in generation 4, assuming an inbreeding coefficient of F = 0 at the beginning of the study, no change in microsatellite allele frequencies in the gene pool, and random mating in all generations?
