Ectrodactyly in central Africa.

Autosomal dominant ectrodactyly has been identified in several families in remote areas of central Africa. Two groups from eastern Botswana and south-western Zimbabwe belong to the Talaunda tribe and have a common ancestral origin. Another family are members of the Wadoma tribe of north-eastern Zimbabwe. A total of 24 individuals may be affected. Tenuous historical evidence suggests that the Talaunda migrated from the eastern Zambezi region late in the last century and may have the same origins as the Wadoma tribe. On this basis it is likely that the affected people have the same faulty gene, which presumably arose by mutation in a common progenitor.