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The manifestation of ethnic, blood type, & gender-wise population variations regarding Dermatoglyphic manifestations are of interest to assess intra-group diversity and differentiation. The present study reports on the analysis of qualitaive and quantitative finger Dermatoglyphic traits of 382 individuals cross-sectionally sampled from an administrative region of Ethiopia, consisting of five ethnic cohorts from the Afro-Asiatic & Nilo-Saharan affiliations. These Dermatoglyphic parameters were then applied in the assessment of diversity & differentiation, including Heterozygosity, Fixation, Panmixia, Wahlund’s variance, Nei’s measure of genetic diversity, and thumb & finger pattern genotypes, which were inturn used in homology inferences as summarized by a Neighbour-Joining tree constructed from Nei’s standard genetic distance. Results revealed significant correlation between Dermatoglyphics & population parameters that were further found to be in concordance with the historical accounts of the ethnic groups. Such inductions as the ancient north-eastern presence and subsequent admixure events of the Oromos (PII= 15.01), the high diversity of the Amharas (H= 0.1978, F= 0.6453, and P= 0.4144), and the Nilo-Saharan origin of the Berta group (PII= 10.66) are evidences to this. The study has further tested the possibility of applying Dermatoglyphics in population genetic & anthropologic research, highlighting on the prospect of developing a method to trace back population origins & ancient movement patterns. Additionally, linguistic clustering was deemed significant for the Ethiopian population, coinciding with recent genome wide studies that have ascertained that linguistic clustering as to being more crucial than the geographical patterning in the Ethiopian context. Finally, Dermatoglyphic markers have been proven to be endowed with a strong potential as non-invasive preliminary tools applicable prior to genetic studies to analyze ethnically sub-divided populations and also to reveal the stratification mechanism in play.

Background: Dermatoglyphic studies, particularly those arising from the Dutch Hunger Winter Families Cohort, indicate an involvement of prenatal epigenetic insults in type-2 diabetes. However, the exact orchestration of this association is not fully understood. Herein is described a meta-analysis performed based on a belief that such an approach could shed some light as to the role of genetic & epigenetic influences in the etiology of type-2 diabetes. Methodology/principal findings: The study incorporated reports identified from PubMed, Medline, & Google Scholar databases for eligible case-control studies that assessed dermatoglyphics in type-2 diabetes cases relative to controls. Over 44,000 fingerprints & 2300 palm prints from around 4400 individuals were included in the analysis. Decreased loops patterns [OR= 0.76; 95% CI= (0.59, 0.98)], increased non-loop patterns [OR= 1.31; 95% CI= (1.02, 1.68)], and reduced absolute finger ridge counts [OR= -0.19; 95% CI= (-0.33, -0.04)] were significant findings among the diabetic group. These results are indicative of mild developmental deviances, with epigenetic insults significantly linked to early gestation wherein critical events &signaling pathways of the endocrine pancreas development are witnessed. Further, the increased loop patterns with decreased non-loop patterns were deemed as possible indicators of decreased genomic heterozygosity with concurrently increased homozygosity in the diabetic group, linked to reduced buffering capacities during prenatal development. Conclusions: Epigenetic insults primarily during the 1 st trimester, to a lesser extent between the early-to-mid 2 ndtrimester, but least likely linked to those beyond the mid-second trimester are evident in type-2 diabetes. It is recommended that future research aimed at expounding the prenatal origins of T2DM, as well as developing novel therapeutic methods, should focus on the early stages of endocrine pancreatic development.

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