The Polymorphism of Red Cell Esterase D in Japan

Abstract

The red cell esterase D among 524 blood donors in Tokyo were investigated by the starch gel electrophoresis techniques essentially similar to original methods. The distribution of phenotypes were as follows : EsD 1 (45.42%), EsD 2-1 (43.89%) and EsD 2 (10.69%). The frequencies of the alleles of <EsD^1>___- and <EsD^2>___- were estimated to be 0.6737 and 0.3263, respectively. These findings show that the frequency of <EsD^2>___- gene of Japanese is higher than those of Caucasians and Negroes reported thus far. Twins study confirmed that the above mentioned three phenotypes were controlled by the autosomal co-dominant alleles of <EsD^1>___- and <EsD^2>___-.