Distribution of group-specific component (Gc) subtypes in several Mongoloid populations of East Asia

The distribution of group-specific component (Gc) subtypes was determined by isoelectric focussing in thin layer polyacrylamide gels of pH range 4 to 6.5, in a group of 2412 individuals from 10 Mongoloid populations of East Asia. The sample comprised 959 Chinese from different localities (Singapore, 249; Malaysia, 347; Taiwan, 246; Hong Kong, 57; Fuzhou mainland, 60), 338 Koreans, 277 Filipinos, 484 Thais, 330 Malays and 24 Indonesians. The Filipinos and Malays had lower frequencies of Gc2 (0.15 and 0.18) compared to other Mongoloid populations (0.23 to 0.32) and the Chinese (0.24 to 0.32). The frequencies of Gc1F varied from 0.39 to 0.49 in the Chinese and 0.35 to 0.52 in other Mongoloid populations. Low frequency of rarer variants was observed in most of the populations. The average frequency of Gc2 was higher in the Japanese (0.26 +/- 0.01) than in the Chinese (0.24 +/- 0.02), and in Mongoloids of East Asia (0.23 +/- 0.01) and South-East Asia (0.17 +/- 0.01). The average frequencies of Gc1F and Gc1S were similar in the Chinese and Japanese, whereas the Mongoloids of South-East Asia had a much higher frequency of Gc1F and a lower frequency of Gc1S than the Chinese, Japanese and East Asian Mongoloid populations.