POPULATION GENETICS OF NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBES

这项工作的目的是确定等位基因的数量，等位基因频率，和等位基因频率的差异在美洲印第安部落。被分型的遗传系统与我们目前在遗传连锁分析中使用的遗传系统相同。1992年至1994年期间，主要在阿尔伯克基印第安医院收集的20个部落中的每一个部落大约有30个人正在接受分析。目前正在根据文化和语言的亲缘关系对部落群体之间的等位基因频率差异进行各种测试。为了更充分地量化隔离结构，并利用这样的人口进行连锁分析，我们已经开发出一种最大似然方法来表征人口的基因身份的水平。我们已经将这种方法应用于三个美洲印第安人和三个欧洲人口的微卫星分型。在欧洲人中观察到低基因同一性，约为28%。相比之下，基因同一性在所有美洲印第安人群体中更高，约为39%。我们研究了当地的基因多样性模式在7个样本的人群在西南部和阿拉斯加。这些人口都说密切相关的阿萨巴斯卡语言，尽管他们分散的地理位置。当与非阿萨巴斯卡讲邻居相比，我们没有发现一个强烈的趋势，这些人口组成一个统一的基因库。相反，地理上的接近是遗传关系的最佳预测因素。在过去的一年中，我们研究了这些人群中与神经生物学和酒精代谢相关的基因的独特序列中的遗传多态性分布。我们也一直在研究这些多态性在本地亚洲人群。这些信息对美洲印第安人的遗传连锁和疾病关联研究很重要，因为如果不考虑人口多样性，可能会导致连锁的错误证据，而群体之间的等位基因异质性可能会产生与疾病的虚假关联。- 人口研究，种族，分子遗传学-人类受试者：仅访谈，问卷调查或调查

The purpose of this work is to ascertain the numbers of alleles, allele frequencies, and allele frequency differences among American Indian tribes. The genetic systems being typed are the same as those being used currently in our genetic linkage analyses. Approximately 30 individuals from each of 20 tribes collected primarily at the Albuquerque Indian Hospital between the years 1992 and 1994 are being analyzed. Various tests for allele frequency differences between tribal groupings based on cultural and linguistic affinities are being performed. In order to more fully quantify isolate structure, and exploit such populations for linkage analyses, we have developed a maximum likelihood method to characterize populations by their levels of gene identity. We have applied this method to microsatellite typings for three American Indian and three European populations. Low gene identity was observed in Europeans, approximately 28%. By contrast, gene identity was higher in all American Indian populations, about 39%. We have studied local patterns of gene diversity in 7 samples from populations in the Southwest and Alaska. These populations all speak closely related Athabascan languages, despite their dispersed geographic locations. When compared to non-Athabascan speaking neighbors, we do not find a strong tendency for these populations to comprise a unified gene pool. Rather, geographic proximity is the best predictor of the genetic relationship. In the past year, we have studied distribution in these populations of genetic polymorphism in unique sequences associated with genes that are related to neurobiology and alcohol metabolism. We have also been examining these polymorphisms in native Asian populations. This information is important to genetic linkage and disease association studies on American Indians because failure to account for population diversity can result in false evidence for linkage, and allelic heterogeneity among groups can create spurious associations with disease. - population research, ethnicity, molecular genetics - Human Subjects: Interview, Questionaires, or Surveys Only