Blood groups and ABH saliva secretion in Koya Dora and Konda Kammara tribes of Andhra Pradesh.

The present paper reports the distribution of blood groups and ABH saliva secretion in two Andhra tribal populations: the Koya Dora and the Konda Kammara. 100 Koya Dora and nearly 110 Konda Kammara adults of both sexes were tested for A1A2BO, MN, Rh (CcDEe) blood groups and ABH saliva secretion. The gene frequencies for A1A2BO, MN and ABH and the gene as well as chromosome frequencies for Rh (CcDEe) systems were calculated. Koya Doras show a higher incidence of A gene than B gene, while the reverse trend is seen in Konda Kammaras. Both the tribes show a high M gene frequency. No Rh(D) negative individual was found in Koya Doras, while 4.59% of Konda Kammaras are Rh(D) negative. The chromosomes CDE, CdE, cDe, cdE, Cde and cde are absent in Koya Doras, while only the four chromosomes CDE, CdE, cDe and cdE are absent in Konda Kammaras. The chromosome CDe shows the highest frequency in both the tribes. The frequency of secretors is, as usual, higher than that of nonsecretors in both the tribes. The intergroup variation between the two tribes is not statistically significant for MN, Rh (CcDEe) and ABH systems, while the difference is significant for the A1A2BO blood groups. Suitable comparisons have also been made with all the other available data from Andhra Pradesh tribal populations with respect to different systems studied. Finally Fi estimates have been calculated after Harpending et al. (1973) and Workman et al. (1974) for Koya Doras and Konda Kammaras to assess their degree of endogamy, considering the codominant systems studied, which suggest that Koya Doras are relatively more isolated than Konda Kammaras.