Hémotypologie du Scoresbysund (East Groenland)

• Published in: Cahiers du Centre de recherches anthropologiques
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: French
• Published: PERSEE 1971
• Subjects: Greenland; Ammassalik; East Greenland; eskimo*; greenlandic; Groenland; Scoresbysund
• Online Access: http://www.persee.fr/doc/bmsap_1297-7810_1971_sup_8_1_2035; https://doi.org/10.3406/bmsap.1971.2035

Abstract: Hemotypology of Scoresbysund (east Greenland.) INTRODUCTION. Founded in 1925 by 70 immigrants from Ammassalik, Scoresbysund is the most northern greenlandic establishment of the east coast of Greenland. Eight people from west Greenland joined this east greenlandic community by several intermarriages. Within forty five years this population has known an uncommon demographical expansion due mostly to the excess of births on deaths. The population of this community was in 1970 of 420 people, all coming either from the flounders or from some forty immigrants, also from Ammassalik, and arrived later. The age structure is that of a particularly young population; the 246 blood samples which analyses are described below concern almost the entire population over 12 years. A detailed demographical and socio-economical study of this population has been made by J. Robert (1) (2) and any interested reader can refer to it. ERYTHROCYTE BLOOD GROUPS Phenotypical frequencies are given in table I. When the concordance of these distributions with our genetic hypotheses and Hardy-Weinberg law has been ascertained, we calculated the gene frequencies in spite of the small sample size (246 people).Such a small sample comes from the population size since we sampled nearly every one between our age limits. 1) ABO system (table I): as in other eskimo populations phenotype A2 was not found. В allele is very rare, probably according to a founder effect. Phenotype frequencies allow the computation of gene frequencies given in table I. 2) Rhesus system (table II): all the individuals are Rhesus positive. Chromosome r seems inexistant and the observed phenotypes may be explained by the presence of four chromosomes: Rb R2, Ro, Rz- The first one is, by far, the most frequent and the last one is only encountered in some hétérozygotes and may come from West Greelandic immigrants. If we consider separately the antigenic systems Cc and Ее we realize that the lack of concordance between the computed and observed phenotypic distributions comes from a very high lack of homozygotes ЕЕ and ее. This may come from a bad recognition of the E antigene by the used serum. So we are led to consider a low reactivity of ťhe E antigènes among at least a part of their carriers. The same has been observed among Chipaya indians for С antigène (3). 3) MNSs system (table III), curiously, is in equilibrium for the ordy Ss locus and in strong desequilibrium if we consider the MN locus alone or both loci. This comes from an important excess of MN heterozygotes and from the almost absence of NN homozygotes. It will be interesting to determine whether it comes by chance, which is possible in such a small population, or if other hypotheses have to be considered as elsewhere (4) (5) (6). 4) P, jka and Duffy systems (table IV) are polymorphic. Fya — individuals are very rare and don't allow any computation of gene frequency; the results concerning the two other systems are only approximations because the distribution cannot be tested and the sample is small. 5) The whole of the 246 tested individuals was Kell negative, vb and i positive. 6) No a or b Lewis antigène was found at the red cells level. negative SERIC GROUPS Two individuals of partly west greenlandic origin show the 1, 2, 17, 21 phenotype in the Gm system. Another one is 3, 5, 10, 11, 14, 25, owing to a danish ancestor. The results for the 243 other samples (Gm and Inv system) are given in table II. The distribution of the Gm polymorphism may be explained by three alleles — Gm Ь 1'' 21 the most common _ Gml, 10, 11, 17,25 _ Gm 1, 3, 5, 10, 11, 14, 25 (or Gm 1, 3, 5, 10, 11, 14, 17, 25) Haplotype frequencies are given by table II. The fit is good. OTHER SYSTEMS AND VARIOUS RESULTS 1) Haptoglobins: alleles 1 and 2 are present with comparable frequencies (Table III). 2) Alkalin phosphatase: 60 % of the samples show phenotype 1 (Table III). 3) Other results: — hemoglobins are normal, as expected — blood proteins proportions (measured by electrophoresis) lie in the range of usual variation in european populations — no treponematosis was found. CONCLUSION. This work is the first step in detailed genetic analysis of a population showing an uncommon history. The genealogical data obtained by J. Robert and the studies undertaken in Ammassalik by the danish scientists and medical doctors as well as by the french team led by R. Gessain (7) will allow us to conclude about some hypotheses appeared in this work. The founder effect concerning the ABO system is almost certain as well as the particular properties of the E antigène of certain individuals. On the contrary, the distribution of the MN system is worth of a particular attention, in order to choose between the hypothesis of an effect of chance and small numbers (apparently bigger than what is expected) and, on the other hand, a selective hypothesis comparable to those made about other populations (some of which are mongoloid) but not yet confirmed. A knowledgements. We thank the danish authorities who, at any level, have been kind enough to make our task easy.