ABO Blood Groups are Efficient in Delineating Relationships across Linguistic Subpopulations of Pakistan

ABSTRACT

Background:

Varying frequencies of ABO blood groups serve objectively to characterize populations just as the traditional characters are observed and measured by anthropologist. The study aimed to delineate genealogical relationships across the five major linguistic subpopulations of Pakistan using ABO blood groups phenotype and gene frequencies.

Methods:

This was a prospective multiple cohort study design. The study was conducted during 2009-2014. In Karachi. Cohorts were formed because of mother tongue and termed as linguistic subpopulations. There were five major cohorts namely Balochi, Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi and Urdu. Punjabi, Sindhi and Urdu belong to Indo Aryan class while Balochi and Pashto belong to Indo Iranian class of languages. Blood samples were collected from 2,327 unrelated individuals chosen through random sampling from different sampling units. ABO blood groups were determined using antisera. ABO gene frequencies were estimated through Bernstein methods. Cluster and Correspondence analyses were performed to explore genealogical relationships between the five linguistic subpopulations.

Results:

Gene B was the most common across all the subpopulations except Balochis which showed relatively higher frequency of gene A. Dendrogram of cluster analysis and bi-plot of correspondence analysis showed closeness of three Indo Aryan linguistic subpopulations namely Punjabi, Sindhi and Urdu, while Indo Iranian linguistic subpopulations Balochi and Pashto stood out from Indo Aryan cluster.

Conclusion:

ABO blood groups efficiently delineated genealogical relationship between the five linguistic subpopulations of Pakistan. Randomization, un-relatedness and a larger sample size enhanced the reliability of the results. Inclusion of more genetic markers may further elaborate the relationships between the subpopulations.

Keywords:

ABO Phenotype; Gene Frequencies; Linguistic Subpopulations; Cluster and Correspondence Analyses; Genealogical Relationships.

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