Serum Albumin Polymorphism in Indians of the South-western United States

Abstract

POLYMORPHISM for serum albumin has an extensive distribution among the Indians of North and middle America. Variant forms, which migrate anodal to the usual type in starch and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, have been reported in Algonkian, Athabaskan and Siouan speaking Indians of Canada and the northern United States. These forms, which may very well be identical, have been designated as Algonkian¹, Naskapi^2,3 and “faster”^4,5. Albumin Naskapi and the “faster” variant have been reported among the Navajo, an Athabaskan tribe in the American south-west^5,6. A variant migrating slower than the usual type of serum albumin has been reported in mestizo populations of south-central Mexico^3,6. This variant, Albumin Mexico, migrates faster than the slow variants described in several European and American pedigrees.