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Table 30

Nee

Distribution of Haptoglobin Types in Micronesians From Rongelap Atoll
Type 1-1
*

Group

AJ

All Rongelap

Selected* Rongelap

No. in

group
176

124

Observed

%

No.

33.5

59

33.1

41

Type 2-2

Expected,

Observed

No.

%

No.

39

18.2

32

-

13.3

19

Type 2-1
Observed

Expected,

No.

“yo

NO.

31.3

47.2

83

30.0

Expected,

0 and rare types,
Observed

No.

85.5

b2

No.
Ll

-

1.6

2
2

*Family groups include onlv one ¢hild (see text).

in them.
The Micronesian sera studied wereall transferrin type CC, which is the common European

type.

Considerable caution must be exercised in extrapolating to an entire population the genefre-

quencies obtained from a small sample. This is
particularly true when studying societies made up
of small isolated or semi-isolated groups which

one another, and, if superimposed, exhibit bi-

modality with the antimode in the neighborhood
of 1.75. With this point used as the division be-

tween high and low excretors, it is estimated that

_nearly 90% of the Rongelapese are high excretors.
A breakdownof this population into exposed and
unexposed groups showsalmost identical mean
BAIB excretion values for the two (exposed, 2.07
+

£

compartmentalize the breeding community. Thus,

and America the frequencyof type 1-1 is higher in

populations living near the equator than in those

remote from it.

It is clear from the Micronesian studies that, at
least in some cases, an individual may have no
haptoglobin at one time, but have sufficient haptoglobin to permit typing at another time. (In this
case, the interval was 2 years.) Examination of the
ahaptoglobinemic individuals gave no significant

findings. With =% of the Rongelap population
sampled, all the ahaptoglobinemic individualsfell
into one family grouping. This did not help to
elucidate the genetic pattern, except to make it
appear unlikely that the Hp’ allele, if such exists,
is not at the same locus as the Hp' and Hp?’alleles.
Oneofthe sibs of an ahaptoglobinemic was a type*
2-1,
x
B-Amino-iso-butyric Acid (BAIB) Levels. Figure
. 46 showsthe frequencydistribution of BATB excretion for the Rongelapese and that of a New
York City white population for comparison. The
two distributions are essentially complementaryto

FREQUENCY (PERCENT)
fu
w
T

the Rongelapese appearto havea fairly highfre-

quency of type 1-1, consistent with the general
(though not exclusive) rule that in Europe-Africa

AMERICAN WHITES

10

c

2
wi
Oo
a
wa
a

5

20

2.5

N=(88

J

{

Vv
Zz
ui
35
fe)
Lud
x
Lo

1.0

5

2.0
mg BAIB

2.5

3.0

CREATININE,
Figure +6. Frequency distributions of urinary excretion
rates of 8-amino-2se-butyric acid of Marshal] Islanders
(Rongelap} and U.S. whites.

TTT
Me

were visible; two of these were very faint 2-2’s, but

the fastest-moving haptoglobin band was not seen

Select target paragraph3