Predominance of the haemoglobin E gene in a Mongoloid population in Assam (India).

A high frequency of the haemoglobin E gene (HbbetaE) had been found in 1972 in the Ahom, a mongoloid population in Upper Assam. The present study confirms frequencies between 0.3 and 0.35 for this population in a larger sample from different areas. An even higher frequency near 0.5 was found in the Kachari of Upper Assam, a tribe of the tibetoburman Bodo group. HbbetaE frequencies in these groups are compared with the frequencies in the general Assamese population and the austroasiatic Khasi of Meghalaya.