Which assumption must be correct for a population to be in hardy-weinberg equilibrium for a specific gene? see section 23.1 (page 458) ?

No genetic drift can affect allele frequencies for the gene.

Explanation:

Any condition that changes allele frequencies in the population represents a violation of the Hardy-Weinberg principle and means that the population will not be in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium.

There are five basic Hardy-Weinberg assumptions:

1. Random Mating -

2. No natural selection - all members of the parental generation survived and contributed equal numbers of gametes to the gene pool, no matter the genotype

3. No genetic drift (random allele frequency changes) - the population is infinitely large.

4. No gene flow - no new alleles were added by immigration or lost through emigration (no migration)

5. No mutation - There must be mutation equilibrium.