Genetic polymorphism among two hill tribes of Assam, India

Attempts were made to examine variation in four genetic markers, in two major hill tribes of Assam namely, the Dimasa and the Karbi. The genetic markers were A₁ A₂ BO and Rh (D) blood groups, abnormal haemoglobin types and earwax types. Similar trend of ABO was observed in both of the populations. However, subtype A₂ of A blood group was detected only in the Karbi population. The frequency of the recessive allele RH*d was found with low frequency in both populations. The genotype frequency of HB*E among the Dimasa was 0.483 which is comparatively higher than that in Karbi (0.211). The allele frequency of recessive character dry earwax (A) was above 70 % in both populations. The gene diversity within the population was much more than that between the population groups. The average co-efficient of genetic diversity (G_ST) based on the four loci was 2.57 %.