Gm and Inv (Km) studies of melanesian people on the Huon Peninsula in northeast Papua New Guinea: Polymorphism for a Gm1,5,10,11,13,14,17,21,26 haplotype

Blood samples from 448 people living in six villages in the Huon Peninsula in northeast Papua, New Guinea, were tested for Gm(1,2,3,5,6,10,11,13,14,17,21,24,26) and Inv(1) Km(1)]. All the people are non-Austronesian (NAN) speakers. As expected, there was a low frequency of the Gm^{1,3,5,10,11,13,14,26} haplotype, but in contradiction to expectations there was a complete absence of the Gm^1,2,17,21,26 haplotype. In addition, samples from people in one village (Yupna) and probably those for two other villages (Irumu 13 and 14) have the rare haplotype Gm^{1,5,10,11,13,14,21,26} at polymorphic frequencies. Two samples from people living in Yupna had the rare phenotype Gm(1,3,17,21,26), indicating the presence of any one of several rare haplotypes that had been observed in other populations. These are discussed.