Gene differentiation among ten endogamous groups of West Bengal, India

Abstract

Ten endogamous populations of West Bengal, India have been surveyed for genetic variation in 12 systems. These populations encompass all social ranks in the caste hierarchy and cover almost the entire geographic area of the state. Gene diversity analysis suggests that these groups exhibit significant allele frequency variation at all but three loci. The overall genetic difference is not, however, in accord with the classification based on caste. Two low-ranking scheduled caste groups are, in fact, in close proximity with the high-caste ones, suggesting evidence of past generations of gene flow among them. Three different clusters of groups emerge from the present data, providing support for the anthropologic assertion that in Bengal Proto-Australoid, Caucasoid, and Mongoloid racial elements generally coexist. However, these three components are not uniformly present in all groups. Geographic separation of the groups is a strong determinant of the gene differentiation that exists among these populations.

A Mother-Child Combination Analysis for ABO-HP Interaction in a Bengalee Population

“…Mother and child allele frequencies for both ABO and HP showed good agreement with published data [9,[12][13][14]20] on the Bengalee Hindu caste population. A contingency y} analysis showed no significant interaction between the two sys tems among the mothers (%2 = 1.59, 6 d.f., p >0.50), or among the children (x2 = 1.84, 6 d.f.. p > 0.50).…”

“…Most of the studies on ABO blood groups and HP system interaction have been con ducted on European populations among whom the HP*1 allele frequencies were much higher [10] and the incidences of ABO incom patibility much lower [11] compared to the In dian population [12][13][14], Moreover, the data derived from disputed paternity cases of Eu ropean origin were analysed [5] for the only mother-child combination study.…”

“…The above-mentioned similarity between two sets of data derived from two groups of populations, European and Indian, was not interferred by low incidences of HP*1 [12,13] and high incidences of fetomaternal ABO in compatibility [14] in India, compared to those in European populations [10,11], As the sam ples for the present study were derived from the adults, misclassification of HP types is very unlikely because HP has been noted to reach its adult level by the age of 6 months [22], Vana and Steinberg [6] found the frequency of HP*1 among ABO phenotypes varied as O < A <B < AB. where as the finding in the present study was to some extent different (O <B < A <AB) for the positions of the A and B alleles.…”

Mode of inheritance of dermatoglyphic pattern intensity index on fingers in five Indian populations: A comparative study between individual trait and its factor

“…Historically, they have not been exposed to outside influences such as gene flow, and thus maintain a common gene pool through endogamy. Further, genetic variations among endogamous castes and tribes from West Bengal (including these populations) were studied based on serological and biochemical markers (Mukherjee et al, 1987;Chakraborty et al, 1986). Following Chakraborty et al (1986), ''the constituent genetic profile of any given population does not always correspond exactly to its present social ranking, since some lowcaste groups are seen to have stronger genetic affiliation with high ranking groups, instead of being close to groups of their own rank.…”

Interaction between ABO and Haptoglobin Systems in a Bengalee Population

“…The Bengalee population in the present study has the allele frequen cies ABO*A-0.1860, ABO*B-0.2550 and ABO*0-0.5590 [8], whereas the English, for example, have the frequencies ABO* A 0.2575, ABO*B-0.1010 and A BO*0-0.6621 [9], The frequency of HP*1 is very low in India com pared to those in European populations [10]. The Bengalee population has HP*1 frequen- cies of 0.13-0.19 [11,12], whereas Europeans usually have HP*1 frequencies over 0.35.…”