The world distribution of the electrophoretic variants of the red cell enzyme esterase D.

The phenotypic variation in the esterase D phenotypes among 2,405 individuals in 14 samples from populations in Europe, Africa and Asia are reported. There exists a marked difference in esterase D allele frequencies in different continental regions. Comparison of the world population data so far available show that esterase D is another useful genetic parameter for the study of population diversity.