The distribution of haptoglobin and transferrin types in northeast New Guinea

This paper reports haptoglobin testing of 2,029 serum specimens and transferrin typing of 1,911 specimens obtained from villages representing a wide range of environments and cultures in the Markham River Valley region of northeast New Guinea. The haptoglobin gene frequencies ranged from 90.0% to 61.4% for Hp¹ and the frequency of the transferring gene Tf^c ranged from 94.9% to 71.5%. Other transferrin genes present were Tf^D1 and, in low frequency, Tf^{B Lae}. Overall, no apparent correlations were found between the frequencies of these genes and altitudes, languages or distances of the villages studied up the valley. It was felt that the arguments put forward earlier emphasizing the role of genetic drift in determining gene distribution in New Guinea could be also applied to explain the distribution of the haptoglobin and transferrin genes in the Markham River Valley.