Polynesian origins and affinities: Globin gene variants in eastern Polynesia
Hill AVS., Gentile B., Bonnardot JM., Roux J., Weatherall DJ., Clegg JB.
Analysis of copy number variants of the duplicated α-, ζ, and γ-globin genes in eastern Polynesians revealed a high frequency of both triplicated-ζ-gene chromosomes and a specific α thalassemia deletion. This deletion and a novel restriction-enzyme-site polymorphism associated with a ζζζ chromosome are found only in Melanesians and Polynesians. Analysis of α-globin restriction-enzyme haplotypes indicated further similarites to Melanesians but suggested an additional non-Melanesian genetic component in eastern Polynesia. Several globin gene alleles showed evidence of marked frequency fluctuations due to genetic drift.