Immunoglobulin allotypes in Hungarian Gypsies. Relationship to populations from India.

The allotypic markers of immunoglobulin heavy chains (Gm, Am and Em allotypes) provide important contributions to the differentiation between populations, and they are informative for tracing racial origin, migration and admixture of isolates and stray groups. The combined G1m; G2m; G3m; A2m; Em haplotypes are a highly polymorphic system that is a powerful tool in population genetics because of the existence of haplotypes that are unique for a particular race. In this paper, data on Gypsies living in Hungary are compared with those obtained in other populations, in particular Hindus and non-Hindus from India. The analysis agrees with anthropological and philological evidence for population movements from Asia to Europe.