Human Immunology
Volume 33, Issue 1 (January 1992)
Pages 39–46
DOI: 10.1016/0198-8859(92)90050-W
Robert C. Williams
Histocompatibility Laboratory, Blood Systems, Inc., Scottsdale, Arizona
Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University
Joan E. McAuley
Histocompatibility Laboratory, Blood Systems, Inc., Scottsdale, Arizona
The genetic distribution of the HLA class I loci is presented for 619 “full blooded” Pima and Tohono O’odham Native Americans (Pimans) in the Gila River Indian Community. Variation in the Pimans is highly restricted. There are only three polymorphic alleles at the HLA-A locus, ∗A2, ∗A24, and ∗A31, and only 10 alleles with a frequency greater than 0.01 at HLA-B where ∗Bw48 (0.187), ∗B35 (0.173), and the new epitope ∗BN21 (0.143) have the highest frequencies. Two and three locus disequilibria values and haplotype frequencies are presented. Ten three-locus haplotypes account for more than 50% of the class I variation, with ∗A24 ∗BN21 ∗Cw3 (0.085) having the highest frequency. Gm allotypes demonstrate that little admixture from non-Indian populations has entered the Community since the 17th century when Europeans first came to this area. As a consequence many alleles commonly found in Europeans and European Americans are efficient markers for Caucasian admixture, while the “private” Indian alleles, ∗BN21 and ∗Bw48, can be used to measure Native American admixture in Caucasian populations. It is suggested that this distribution in “full blooded” Pimans approximates that of the Paleo-Indian migrants who first entered the Americas between 20,000 and 40,000 years ago.
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