Population and family studies on carbonic anhydrase II polymorphism in Gambia, West Africa

614 individuals from the village of Keneba in Gambia (West Africa) have been typed for red cell Carbonic Anhydrase II using cellulose acetate electrophoresis followed by detection of the enzyme with the fluorogenic substrate fluorescein diacetate. Three phenotypes were found; 479 CAII 1 (80.94%), 107 CAII 2-1 (17.43%), and 10 CAII 2 (1.63%). The gene frequencies of the 2 autosomal alleles responsible for the electrophoretically distinguishable polymorphism were CAII 1 0.897 and CAII 2 0.103. A study of 72 families confirmed the simple Menedelian co-dominant inheritance.