The Distribution of Blood, Serum Protein and Enzyme Groups on Manus Island (Admiralty Islands, New Guinea)

Abstract

Blood samples from 45 Usiai and 138 Manus people on the Island of Manus, New Guinea, have been tested for the ABO, MN, Ss, Rh, P, Duffy, Kell and Gerbich blood-group systems, the haptoglobin, transferrin, protease-inhibitor, caerulo plasmin and albumin serum-protein systems, and the acid-phosphatase, 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase, phosphoglucomutase (locus 1 and 2), peptidase A and B, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, lactate dehydrogenase, malate dehydrogenase, adenylate kinase, phosphohexose isomerase, adenosine deaminase, phosphoglyce-rate kinase and oxidase red-cell enzyme systems, as well as abnormal haemoglobins. The phenotype and gene frequency distributions, in general, are within the range for New Guinea and Micronesian populations, but some results are of special interest. In the Duffy blood-group system, two Fy (a–b+) persons were found, resulting in a relatively high Fyb gene frequency. In addition, the frequency of Ge(a–) persons in the Gerbich blood-group system is lower than that found recently for many other Melanesian-speaking populations in New Guinea. In the phosphoglucomutase (PGM) system, there were no examples of the PGM³₁ and PGM⁷₁ alleles on Manus, though these alleles are frequently present in other SW Pacific populations. Similarly in the phosphoglycerate kinase system, no examples of the PGK² or PGK⁴ alleles were found on Manus, though these are present in Micronesian and among some populations in New Guinea. Finally, no D₁ transferrin variants were found on Manus, but a new transferrin allele was found, with a frequency of 0.0164. This allele has been given the trivial name D^Manus. The results are discussed in relation to the linguistic differentiation between Usiai and Manus populations and to the intermarriage between them.

Distribution of Blood, Serum Protein and Enzyme Groups among the Fuyuge Speakers of the Goilala Sub-District

“…No albumin variants were detected in the present Fuyuge series. The third system, the protease inhibitor types, has not been extensively studied in Papua New Guinea, but so far appears to be invariant, only the M type being present except for a single FM individual among the Manus [Malcolm et al, 1972]. The uniformity of type M in the present series where 140 samples were tested is in agreement with previous studies.…”

“…In previous publications [Sinnett et a l, 1970;Kirk el al., 1973] we have commented on the number of alleles segregating at locus 1 of the phosphoglucomutase system in New Guinea, PGMj, PGM], FGA/^and PGM]. In the Admiralty Islands, however, we found only PGM\ and PGM] [Malcolm et al, 1972]. In the study of samples from Pit River (Irian Jaya) we noted also the occurrence of an unidentified allele at locus 2 of PGM.…”

“…Previous studies of the haptoglobin groups in New Guinea have been summarized by Simmons and Booth [1971] and additional data has been added for the Admiralty Islands by Malcolm et al [1972] and for Irian Jaya by Kirk et al [1973]. The Hp' gene frequency in all localities is high, generally exceeding 0.6.…”

“…The frequency of the common he terozygous variant (AC) is relatively high in New Guinea: Sinnett et al [1970] report 10% in the Western Highlands, Malcolm et al [1972] found 33% in the Admiralty Islands, and K irk et al [1973] give a value of 34% for Pit River in Irian Jaya. The value for the Fuyuge of nearly 24% is therefore intermediate.…”

A Population Genetic Study of the Kota in the Nilgiri Hills, South India

“…Filter paper strips and the remaining capillary tubes were then frozen until transported to Canberra at dry ice tem perature. Serum protein and red cell enzyme typing was performed using essentially the methods described by Saha et al [1974] and Malcolm et al [1972].…”