Survey of seven plasma protein polymorphisms in the Amhara and Oromo populations of Ethiopia

Abstract

The Ethiopian population is very difficult to specify due to a very high degree of intermixing among different peoples. The two groups of the present study, the Amhara and Oromo, constitute 38% and 35% of the population, respectively. In order to investigate the genetic composition of the Amhara and Oromo, genetic polymorphisms of seven plasma proteins (F13A, F13B, ORM1, AHSG, C6, C7, and APOC2), already identified as useful anthropological markers, were studied. No statistically relevant differences were found between the two groups for all of the systems examined. ORM1 and F13A showed frequencies in the range observed in other populations of Caucasoid and Negroid origin. F13B, AHSG, and C6 displayed gene frequencies and a number of variant alleles that seem particular to these two groups. No variation was observed for C7 and APOC2. Correspondence and distance analyses were used to interpret and compare the gene frequencies of the Amhara and Oromo with those of other related populations. These methods locate Ethiopians in an intermediate position between African Blacks and a group of Caucasoid populations, confirming cultural and historical data. © 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

World distribution of the T833C/844INS68 CBS in cis double mutation: a reliable anthropological marker

“…The recent findings on the Mixed populations are in line with their well-known origin: the Afro-Americans of Viche (Ecuador) show a very high frequency, similar to that of Benin (West Africa) populations (see Table 1). On the other hand, Ethiopians display a frequency considerably lower than that found in sub-Saharan Africans, an indication of their mixed Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and African origin, as already pointed out in other studies (Cavalli Sforza et al 1994;Scacchi et al 1994;Tartaglia et al 1996). It is worth stressing that the incidence is even lower than that found in the European population analyzed.…”

An investigation of human apolipoproteins B and E polymorphisms in two African populations from Ethiopia and Benin

“…They descend from Semitic conquerors who migrated southward from southern Arabia. Their historic and genetic data confirm a predominant contribution of Mediterranean and Near-Eastern populations to their gene pool (Murdoch, 1959;Scacchi et al, 1994;Tartaglia et al, 1996). The Amhara are agriculturalists and produce maize, wheat, millet, barley, sorghum, and teff, an indigenous cereal grass.…”

“…The Oromo, of Cushitic origin, constitute about 35% of the Ethiopian population (Britannica Book of the Year, 1993). Their previous wide contact with indigenous Bushmanoids and Bantoids (Murdoch, 1959) was shown in studies on their genetic structure (Scacchi et al, 1994). At present they inhabit the eastern and southern parts of the country (Huntingford, 1969;Kaplan et al, 1971); they are essentially pastoralists, but have become sedentary agriculturalists in the eastern and northern regions, where admixture with the Amhara was possible.…”

“…MATERIALS AND METHODS Population samples The two African populations examined in this paper have been extensively described (Biondi et al, 1995;Rickards and Martinez-Labarga, 1994;Scacchi et al, 1994;Tartaglia et al, 1996). The Ethiopian samples comprised 89 unrelated and healthy children of both sexes, whose parents were of Amhara origin, and 81 children of Oromo origin.…”

An anthropogenetic study on the Oromo and Amhara of central Ethiopia

“…Their morphological and morphometric features are predominantly Europoid, but the occurrence of several tegumentary characters indicate that a certain degree of admixture with Negritic people occurred (Biasutti, 1967). The few studies on the genetic structure of the Ethiopian populations seem to support such a view (Mourant et al, 1976a;Scacchi et al, 1994). The Nilo-Saharan-speaking tribes, who are the only representatives of the Negritic people in the Country, are confined to marginal territories, scattered in the lowlands along the Ethiopian-Sudanese border.…”