Population Genetic Studies on Nine Aboriginal Ethnic Groups of Taiwan. I. Red Cell Enzyme Systems

Abstract

Population genetic study of nine aboriginal ethnic groups of Taiwan(Ami, Atayal, Bunun, Paiwan, Puyuma, Rukai, Saisiat, Tsou, and Yami) wascarried out. Twelve red cell enzymes (AcP, AK, CA1, CA2, EsD, GLO, GPT, GOT, LDH, MDH, PGD, and PGM1) were analyzed by isoelectric focusingmethod and starch gel electrophoretic method. Six loci (AcP, EsD, GLO, GPT, PGD, and PGM1) were polymorphic. Three alleles (PGM1*6, GPT*6, andEsD*7) were in relatively higher allele frequencies in Taiwan aboriginalpopulations, and we found homozygotes for those alleles. Phylogenetic relationshipbased on genetic distances among those ethnic groups more or less fit to theirgeographical distribution, but not to linguistic classification.