Abstract
THE γ-globulin (Gm) genetic polymorphism, first described by Grubb1, exhibits considerable geographical variation. Steinberg, Boyer and Stauffer2 recently observed a striking excess of the phenotype Gm (a + b +) among Negroes in the United States. Accordingly it was suggested that an allele, Gm ab, exists in coloured populations. The allele frequency of Gm ab among 593 Negroes from Maryland and Ohio is 0.690. The difference between this value and unity was taken as an estimate of European genetic admixture in American Negroes. Essential to this estimate was the assumption that Gm ab frequency is nearly 1.00 in native West Africans. Moullec3 had previously reported that 449 residents of Dakar were all Gm(a+); however, typing of Gm b was not then possible and has not since been described in a West African population.
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References
Grubb, R., and Laurell, A. B., Acta Path. Microbiol. Scand., 39, 390 (1956).
Steinberg, A. G., Boyer, S. H., and Stauffer, R., Nature, 188, 169 (1960).
Moullec, J., Fine, J. M., Henry, Cl., and Silverie, Ch., Proc. Seventh Cong. Int. Soc. Blood Transfusion, 881 (1958).
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BOYER, S., WATSON-WILLIAMS, E. The γ-Globulin, Gm ab, in Nigerians. Nature 190, 456 (1961). https://doi.org/10.1038/190456a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/190456a0
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