GENETIC-STRUCTURE OF POPULATIONS AND CHAR ACTERISTICS OF TERRITORIAL DISTRIBUTION OF AUTOSOMAL RECESSIVE DISEASES IN KIROV REGION

The genetic structure of human populations inhabiting Kirov region is described. The effect of genetic drift on geographical distribution of families with autosomal recessive diseases is analyzed. Genetic dista nces were calculated from frequencies of occurrence of certain family names and frequencies of autosomal recessive genes encoding hereditary diseases. Cluster analysis based oh matrices of genetic distances sho wed that descriptions of the genetic structure obtained using these tw o methods are in good agreement with one another. It is shown that gen etic drift is the principal factor determining the territorial distrib ution of autosomal recessive genes within population of Kirov region. This conclusion is based on local accumulation of families suffering f rom autosomal recessive diseases.