Genetic variation within a linguistic group: Apalai-Wayana and other Carib tribes.

A total of 136 individuals were studied in relation to 31 genetic systems, and the results were compared with South American Indian averages and previous surveys on the Wayana of French Guiana and Surinam. The information was afterwards integrated with data from other Carib groups, and two types of genetic distances (Nei's and Edwards') were calculated a) between five groups, considering ten systems; and b) between nine groups, using five systems. The two measures of genetic distances correlated well (Spearman's correlation coefficient around 0.70), and there was good agreement between the geographical and genetic distances. All analyses indicated a peripheral position for the Apalai-Wayana and their distinctiveness from the Wayana of French Guiana and Surinam, suggesting that intertribal fusions may play an important role in the genetic differentiation of these populations.