Keywords Haemoglobin Variants. Glyoxalase I. North India

Abstract Original  data are presented on haemoglobin variants among 96 regional endogamous tribal and non-tribal population groups of North India inhabiting four states of Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Punjab and Haryana. For this work a total of 13,518 haemolysates were screened in conjunction with routine typing of the red cell enzyme glyoxalase I (GLO I ) in several different biochemical genetics investigations carried out by our laboratory over the last almost two decades. As for the incidence of haemoglobin  variants (HB AV ) it was found to be variable – from 0.7% in Himachal Pradesh and 0.9% in Uttaranchal  to 1%  in Punjab and 1.1% in Haryana, suggesting a South- North decreasing cline. The overall  Hb AV incidence for people of North India was recorded 0.9%. An interesting finding of the present study was the discovery of very high frequency of haemoglobin variants, in polymorphic proportions (4.5 – 9.5%) in two tribal groups of Uttaranchal viz., the Tharu and Bhoksa. Importance of haemoglobin as a useful genetic marker in Indian context has been emphasized.

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