R. Scacchi et al., THE CAYAPA INDIANS OF ECUADOR - A POPULATION STUDY OF 7 PROTEIN GENETIC POLYMORPHISMS, Annals of human biology, 21(1), 1994, pp. 67-77
The Cayapa Indians are a population of 3600 individuals living in Ecua
dor, along the Cayapas River, and its tributaries. They are thought to
have migrated from the Andes, north of Quito, and settled in the Caya
pas area five centuries ago as a consequence of Inca expansion and of
the Spanish conquest. In order to study the genetic structure of the C
ayapa and their relationships with other native American peoples, and
to enquire on the possibility of admixture from nearby Black communiti
es, we have investigated a sample of 139 individuals for seven plasma
genetic markers (F13A, F13B, ORM1, AHSG, C6, C7 and APOC2) by isoelect
ric focusing and immunoblotting. The following gene frequencies have b
een found: F13A1=0.824, F13A*2= 0.176; F13B*1=0.126, F13B*3=0.874; OR
M11=0.554, ORM1*2=0.446; AHSG*1=0.275, AHSG*2=0.725; C6*A=0.131, C6*B
=0.814, C6A21=0.055; C7*1=1.000; APOC2*1=1.000. The findings confirm,
whenever the comparison was possible, quite a good resemblance of the
Cayapa with other Native American populations.