[Analysis of allelic variants of the hypervariable locus of apolipoprotein B in Bashkir and Komi populations]

Allelic variation of the hypervariable apolipoprotein B gene locus (ApoB) in three groups of the Bashkir population and in the Komi population was analyzed. Among 219 individuals studied, 13 allelic variants were identified with the number of repeats ranging from 28 to 52. The frequency of alleles varied from 0.01 to 0.51 with the mean heterozygosity index being 0.66 in the Bashkir population and 0.74 in the Komi one. Considerable difference in the frequency distribution of the ApoB loci genotypes between the Bashkir and Komi populations was observed, and the distribution patterns for Bashkirs from Abzelilovskii and Ilishevskii regions deviated from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The genetic distance between the Bashkir and Komi populations calculated on the basis of allele frequencies at the hypervariable ApoB gene locus corresponded to the expected degree similarity of the populations studied. Thus, this locus can be recommended as an informative marker for studying the gene pool and genetic processes in the populations because of the high level of its polymorphism and the heterozygosity in the populations.