GENETIC DISTANCES BETWEEN THE UTAH MORMONS AND RELATED POPULATIONS

  • 1 January 1984
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 36  (4) , 836-857
Abstract
Gene frequency data, consisting of 6 red cell antigen loci, 9 electrophoretic systems and HLA-A and -B are reported for the Utah Mormon population. These are compared statistically to gene frequencies from a USA population. Thirteen European populations, and 7 populations from 3 religious isolates. The Mormon gene frequencies are similar to those of their northern European ancestors. This is explained by the large founding size of the Mormon population and high rates of gene flow. The religious isolates (Amish, Hutterites and Mennonites) show marked divergence from their ancestral populations and each other, due to isolation and random genetic drift. The HLA loci and electrophoretic loci presented here yield sets of genetic distances that are highly correlated (r = 0.734) and that both correspond closely to the actual geographic distances among the European populations. The genetic distances based on red cell antigen loci correspond less closely to the geographic distances and exhibit lower correlations with both the HLA and electrophoretic loci (r = 0.524 and r = 0.565, respectively).