ANALYSIS OF ALLELIC VARIATION OF THE APOL IPOPROTEIN-B HYPERVARIABLE LOCUS IN THE BASHKIR AND KOMI POPULATIONS

Allelic variation of the hypervariable apolipoprotein B gene locus (Ap oB) in three groups of the Bashkir population and in the Komi populati on was analyzed. Among 219 individuals studied, 13 allelic variants we re identified with the number of repeats ranging from 28 to 52. The fr equency of alleles varied from 0.01 to 0.51 with the mean heterozygosi ty index being 0.66 in the Bashkir population and 0.74 in the Komi one . Considerable difference in the frequency distribution of the ApoB lo ci genotypes between the Bashkir and Komi populations was observed, an d the distribution patterns for Bashkirs from Abzelilovskii and Ilishe vskii raions deviated from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The genetic distance between the Bashkir and Komi populations calculated on the b asis of allele frequencies at the hypervariable ApoB gene locus corres ponded to the expected degree similarity of the populations studied. T hus, this locus can be recommended as an informative marker for studyi ng the gene pool and genetic processes in the populations because of t he high level of its polymorphism and the heterozygosity in the popula tions.