Red cell glutathione peroxidase (GPX1) variation in Afro-Jamaican, Asiatic Indian, and Dutch populations

Abstract

A Cellogel procedure for screening the electrophoretic variants of the human red cell glutathione peroxidase ( GPX1 ) was described. Three hundred and ninety eight Dutch persons living in various parts of The Netherlands, 385 individuals born in various states of India, and 72 Jamaicans of African origin living in Birmingham, UK, were screened for GPX1 variants. The Dutch were monomorphic, while one Afro-Jamaican female and two males and one female of the 116 Punjabis were found to be variants indistinguishable from each other in their pattern of electrophoresis. The clear five banded pattern of the variant indicated that the subunit structure of the human red cell glutathione peroxidase is most probably a tetramer and suggested that the variant is the expression of a heterozygote due to alleles at an autosomal locus. The corresponding phenotype was designated tentatively as GPX1 2-1 and the alleles as GPX1 *1 and GPX1 *2 respectively. The variant 2-1 was found to be identical to the "Thomas" variant described by Beutler and West (1974). Thus so far, in addition to the Afro-Americans and Ashkenazi Jews (Beutler et al. 1974), the Punjabis of the Indian subcontinent (this report) were found to exhibit the GPX1 polymorphism due to the GPX1 *2 allele. The data discussed in this paper (which included unpublished observations on several African and non-African populations) suggest that the GPX1 *2 allele is originally an African variant and hint that the present day Punjabis of Indian subcontinent, like Ashkenazi Jews, are "predominantly of Mediterranean origin with some proportion of African ancestry" ( Mourant et al. 1976).

The peopling of Sub-Saharan Africa: The case study of Cameroon

“…Erythrocyte and serum polymorphisms (the abbreviation is followed by the reference to the electrophoretic technique used) analyzed were: 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (6-PGD; Sonneborn et al, 1972); acid phosphatase locus 1 (ACP1; Destro-Bisol and Ranalletta, 1988); ␣ 1 -antitrypsin (A1-AT; Pascali and De Mercurio, 1981); carbonic anhydrase locus II (CAII; Noppinger and Morrison, 1981); esterase D (ESD; Destro- Bisol and Spinella, 1989); glyoxalase locus I (GLOI; Meera Khan and Doppert, 1976); group specific component (GC; Pascali et al, 1984); glutathione peroxidase (GPX1; Meera Khan et al, 1984); phosphoglucomutase locus 1 (PGM1; Destro-Bisol and Spinella, 1989); transferrin (TF; Pascali et al, 1988). 6-PGD, CAII, GLOI and GPX1 were typed by conventional electrophoresis on gelled cellulose acetate strips (Cellogel).…”

Anthropological survey on red cell glutathione peroxidase (GPX1) polymorphism in Central Western Africa: A tentative hypothesis on the interaction between GPX1*2 and Hbβ*S allelic products

“…Preparation of samples and electrophoretic procedures were performed in accordance with Meera Khan et al (1984a), except that 0.05 M dithiothreitol (DTT) was used as lysis solution instead of 0.1 M 2-mercaptoethanol (2-ME). Samples exhibiting unusual patterns were treated by 0.05 or 0.1 M DTT, 1 M or 2 M 2-ME, or 0.05 M GSH.…”

“…Khan et al (1984a) lThe GPXb2 allele was nut found in 110 Norwegians,398 Dutch, and 76 Sardinians(Meera Khan et al, 1984a), 300 non-Jewish whites of the U S A . (estimated by Meera Khan et al, 1984afrom Beutler et al, 1974 and 47 Marathi and 198 Telugu of India (Meera Khan et al, 1984a).…”

“…All the populations examined were characterized by polymorphic frequencies of GPX1*2 (from 0.012 in the Sango to 0.058 in the Bamileke), which fit into the range of values reported for the Subsaharan populations ( Table 2). The GPX1*2 allele was not found in any population of non-African origin, with the exception of Ashkenazy Jews of the United States and Punjabis of India; this finding could be the result of their ancient genetic admixture with African populations (Mourant et al, 1976;Meera Khan et al, 1984a). The data obtained by us strongly support the theory of the "African marker" value of GPX1*2 (Meera Khan et al, 1984a) and enable us to outline more exhaustively the GPXl distribution in Subsaharan Africa.…”

“…Mavelli et al, 1984); alpha-thalassaemia ; and beta-thalassemia (Gerli et al, 1980). The electrophoretic polymorphism of GPXl, first reported in US blacks , is determined by the two codominant alleles GPX1*1 and GPX1*2 (following the nomenclature introduced by Meera Khan et al, 1984a). The previous GPXl studies Nurse and Jenkins, 1976;Board, 1983;Meera Khan et al, 1984a have pointed out that GPX1*2 is present only among Subsaharans and in populations with a probable African genetic heritage, thus supporting the theory of "African marker" value of GPX1*2 (Meera .…”