The population of Cabo Verde was founded in the fifteenth century (1462), on the basis of slaves brought from the West African coast and a few Europeans, mainly from Portugal. The polymorphism of six red cell enzymes (ADA, AK1, ALAD, ESD, GLO1, and PGD) and ten plasma proteins (AHSG, BF, F13A, F13B, GC, HP, ORM, PLG, TBG, and TF) was studied in a sample of 268 individuals from Cabo Verde (West Africa). There is no statistical evidence of genetic heterogeneity between the two groups of islands which constitute the archipelago, Barlavento and Sotavento. The gene frequency distribution observed in Cabo Verde differs, in many markers, from that of West African populations, suggesting an important European influence. The proportion of Caucasian genes in the population of Cabo Verde has been calculated to be M = 0.3634 +/- 0.0510, and the considerable dispersion of the locus-specific admixture estimates seems to indicate random drift has also played a role in the evolution of the allele frequencies in the archipelago. Partition of the variance of the mean estimate in evolutionary and sampling variance shows the evolutionary variance is more than ten times higher than the sampling variance. When dendrograms are constructed on the basis of different genetic distances, the population of Cabo Verde clusters with Afro-Americans, forming a different group from the populations of the African continent. This is interpreted as a consequence of the importance of Caucasian admixture both in Afro-Americans and in the population of Cabo Verde.

Four tetrameric STRs (TPOX, HUMVWA31/A, HUMTH01, and CYP19) were analysed in a West African population (Cabo Verde). No significant deviations from Hardy-Weinberg proportions were observed, either in conventional or exact tests. Pairwise comparisons confirmed allelic independence for all the combinations of loci. Data is provided for the first time about CYP19 in Black populations. In comparisons between African and Afro-American populations, significant frequency differences for several alleles at the TH01 and VWA31/A loci were observed. The allele frequencies provided in this study contribute to a better knowledge of the variability of these markers among the main human groups, especially in the context of Subsaharan African populations.

Inter-alpha-trypsin inhibitor (ITI) phenotypes were classified in the West African population of Cabo Verde by polyacrylamide gel isoelectric focusing, followed by immunofixation and silver staining. Gene frequencies of the alleles ITI*1, ITI*2, ITI*3, and ITI*4 were calculated to be 0.532, 0.153, 0.307 and 0.002, respectively. A new rare allele, ITI*7, was found, providing evidence for further genetic variability of the ITI protein. The ITI*7 allele frequency has been determined to 0.006. The assumption that allele ITI*3 may be used to characterize populations of African origin is supported by our data.

The genetic polymorphism of six red cell enzymes (ADA, AK1, ALAD, ESD, GLO1, and PGD) and 10 plasma proteins (AHSG, BF, F13A, F13B, GC, HP, ORM, PLG, TBG, and TF) is analyzed in a sample of 268 unrelated individuals from Cabo Verde (West Africa). The population of Cabo Verde was founded in the 15th century (1462), on the basis of a great number of slaves brought from the West African coast and a few Europeans, mainly from Portugal. The frequencies found in Cabo Verde for the majority of the markers are intermediate between those reported for Africans and Europeans. Further, the presence of alleles which are rarely or never seen in Blacks, but are common in Caucasians, suggest a substantial contribution of Europeans to the gene pool of the population of Cabo Verde. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.