National League for Nursing (NLN PAX) Practice Exam

In the context of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, one of the fundamental conditions that must be met for a population to maintain its genetic variation over time is that the population is isolated from other populations. This isolation helps ensure that there is no gene flow, which can introduce new alleles or change allele frequencies in the population.

When a population is isolated, it tends to maintain its genetic structure without external influences, allowing calculations of allele and genotype frequencies to hold steady from generation to generation. This is particularly important for predicting the expected ratios of phenotypes and genotypes based on the allele frequencies within that population.

The other conditions related to Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium include a large population size, the absence of natural selection, random mating, and no mutations. When any of these factors are violated, it can lead to changes in allele frequencies due to evolutionary forces, which would disrupt the equilibrium.