Ovalocytosis in Papua New Guinea -- dominantly inherited resistance to malaria.

Analysis of ovalocytosis in families has demonstrated dominant inheritance. This conclusion is based on finding ovalocytic children of ovalocytic Melanesian mothers and normocytic Caucasian fathers. Inheritance of resistance to thermal deformation and to crenation upon storage correlated with inheritance of ovalocytic erythrocyte morphology. The latter was associated with in vitro resistance to invasion by P. falciparum.