Globin gene-associated restriction-fragment-length polymorphisms in southern African peoples

The combination of polymorphic restriction-enzyme sites in the 3' region of the beta-globin gene cluster shows very little variation in southern-African Bantu-speaking black and Kalahari !Kung San populations. The sites of the 5' region, on the other hand, show marked variation, and two common haplotypes are present--the "Negro" type (- - - - +) and the "San" type (- + - - +)--in frequencies of .404 and .106, respectively, in the Bantu-speakers and .262 and .405, respectively, in the San. Twenty of 23 beta s-associated haplotypes in southern-African Bantu-speaking black subjects were the same as that found commonly in the Central African Republic (CAR)--i.e., the "Bantu" type--a finding providing the first convincing biological evidence for the common ancestry of geographically widely separated speakers of languages belonging to the Bantu family. The (-alpha) haplotype has a frequency of .21 in the Venda, .07 in both the Sotho-Tswana and the Nguni, and .06 among the !Kung San. These data are interpreted in the light of Plasmodium falciparum malaria selection and population movements in the African subcontinent.