On the Geographical Variability of the red cell PGM₁and Acid Phosphatase Gene Frequencies

Abstract

Based on the hitherto published population data of the human red cell PGM₁ and acid phosphatase polymorphisms, the geographical distributions of their gene frequencies were analyzed. As far as the acid phosphatase alleles are concerned, a marked geographical gradient was found as the P^a and P^b alleles showed significant correlations with the mean annual temperatures of the various human biotopes (P^a:r = –0.706; P^b:r = +0.812). Against that, the world distribution of the PGM₁ alleles did not show a comparable correlation (PGM¹₁:r = +0.063; PGM²₁:r = –0.063). The possible reasons for the distribution pattern of the acid phosphatase alleles are discussed.