Class I HLA antigens in two long-separated populations: Melanesians and South Amerinds.

Class I HLA antigens have been compared in 5,835 Melanesians of Papua New Guinea and 2,028 Amerindians of South America. The sample includes 50 PNGMel ethnolinguistic groups and 22 SAmInd groups. Both carry 15 serologically defined antigens and an undefined C allele. Except for A2 in Papua New Guinea and Cw1 in South America, these antigens are widely distributed in their respective populations. Nine (A2 and A24, B39, B60 and B62, and Cw1, Cw3, Cw4, and Cw7) are common to both. This commonality suggests that these two populations derive from an ancestral population with less polymorphism than modern East Asians. In both populations several theoretically possible haplotypes were absent, and other haplotypes were in positive disequilibrium in both. The parallels in disequilibria suggest that haplotypes are subject to selective forces acting on the level of allelic interaction. Based on three locus haplotype frequencies, the PNGMel groups form five clusters with internally typical linguistic and geographic characteristics and miscellaneous category, but SAmInd groups show no cluster.