HEMOGLOBIN-VARIANTS IN NORTH-AFRICA

The populations of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia are composed of diffe rent ethnic groups including Arabs, Berbers, Sub-Saharan Africans, Eur opeans, and Turks. Between 1981 and 1991, we studied more than 3,000 i ndividuals from these North African countries, One-hundred and eighty- one carried one (or more) unusual hemoglobin variant(s) other than Mb S and Mb C which. are the most frequent variants in these countries, E ach of these 181 individuals was heterozygous for at least one of the 49 abnormal alpha or beta alleles identified by electrophoretic and/or structural studies, and some homozygotes were detected. A few mutants are common in North Africa: Mb O-Arab, Hb D-Punjab and Mb G-Philadelp hia, Other mutants encountered in European or African populations are found in relatively few North African families, The observed polymorph isms in the populations of North Africa probably result largely from t heir complex ethnic origins.