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Science 13 October 1961:
Vol. 134. no. 3485, pp. 1077 - 1078
DOI: 10.1126/science.134.3485.1077
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Articles

Absence of the Diego Antigen, a Genetic Characteristic of Early Immigrants to South America

M. Layrisse 1 and J. Wilbert 2

1 Departamento de Fisiopatología, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas, Caracas, Venezuela
2 Fundación La Salle de Ciencias Naturales, Caracas, Venezuela

The Diego blood group is an exclusive Mongoloid gene marker, although it is not present in all Mongoloid populations. The absence of the gene in Waica Indians and its very low frequencies in Warrau and Yaruro Indians of South America suggest that it represents a genetic characteristic of Marginal American Indians. Since Marginal Indians are considered to be early comers to the New World, we suggest that Diego-negative populations were the first to arrive and to extend throughout South America, while the Diego-positive tribes came later.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
A Prospectus for Genetic Studies of the American Indian.
J. V. Neel and F. M. Salzano (1964)
Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol 29, 85-98
   Abstract »    PDF »
Genetics and the Human Race: Definition of race on the basis of gene frequencies supplements definition from morphological characters.
W. C. Boyd (1963)
Science 140, 1057-1064
   PDF »


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