42
Table 30
Distribution of Haptoglobin Types in Micronesians From Rongelap Atoll
Type 1-1
Observed
Group
All Rongelap
Selected* Rongelap
No. in —-—————__
group
%
No.
176
124
33.5
33.1
59
41
Type 2-2
Expected,
Observed
No.
%
No.
59
-
18.2
15.3
32
19
Type 2-1
Observed
Expected,
—————
No.
31.5
-
%
No.
47.2
50.0
83
62
O and rare types,
Observed
Expected,
————_-_——
No.
85.5
-
%
No.
hl
1.6
2
2
*Family groups include only one child (see text).
were visible; two of these were very faint 2-2’s, but
one another, and, if superimposed, exhibit bi-
type.
of 1.75. With this point used as the division between high and low excretors, it is estimated that
nearly 90% of the Rongelapese are high excretors.
A breakdownof this population into exposed and
the fastest-moving haptoglobin band was not seen
in them.
The Micronesian sera studied wereall transferrin type CC, which is the common European
Considerable caution must be exercised in extrapolating to an entire population the genefrequencies obtained from a small sample. Thisis
particularly true when studying societies made up
modality with the antimodein the neighborhood
unexposed groups showsalmost identical mean
BAITB excretion values for the two (exposed, 2.07 +
FREQUENCY (PERCENT)
of small isolated or semi-isolated groups which
compartmentalize the breeding community. Thus,
the Rongelapese appear to havea fairly high frequency of type I-1, consistent with the general
(though not exclusive) rule that in Europe-Africa
and America the frequencyof type 1-1 is higher in
populations living near the equatorthanin those
remote from it.
It is clear from the Micronesian studies that, at
least in some cases, an individual mav have no
haptoglobin at one time, but havesufficient hapto-
e
|
AMERICAN WHITES
globin to permit typing at anothertime. (In this
case, the interval was 2 years.) Examination ofthe
ahaptoglobinemicindividuals 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 makeit
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
en
--o
N=188
£15
>y
YiYA
pp
2-1.
B-Amino-iso-butyric Acid (BAIB) Levels. Figure
46 showsthe frequency distribution of BAIB excretion for the Rongelapese and that of a New
York City white population for comparison. The
two distributionsare essentially complementary to
mg BAIB
mg CREATININE
Figure 46. Frequencydistributions of urinary excretion
rates of 8-amino-1so-butyric acid of Marshall Islanders
(Rongelap) and U.S. whites.