Abstract
RECENTLY, Shaw and Smith1 have discussed the question of heterozygote advantage for the Tay-Sachs gene in Jewish populations with reference to our published computations2 and more generally. Their estimate of 5.3 per cent advantage over normal homozygote, based on trial values in a discrete model, is better than our value of 4.6 per cent from a very rough continuous approximation. But they seem to imply that we also accepted another estimate of 1.3 per cent advantage; this value was mentioned only to indicate how little heterosis would be required simply to cancel deaths of the recessive homozygotes.
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References
Shaw, R. F., and Smith, A. P., Nature, 224, 1214 (1969).
Myrianthopoulos, N. C., and Aronson, S. M., Amer. J. Human Genet., 18, 313 (1966).
Aronson, S. M., Herzog, M. I., Brunt, P. W., McKusick, V. A., and Myrianthopoulos, N. C., Trans. Amer. Neurol. Assoc., 117 (1967).
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MYRIANTHOPOULOS, N., NAYLOR, A. & ARONSON, S. Tay-Sachs Disease is Probably not Increasing. Nature 227, 609 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1038/227609a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/227609a0
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