ALPHA-THALASSEMIA IN THE 4 MAJOR ABORIGINAL GROUPS IN TAIWAN

A total of 1309 unrelated blood samples from four major Taiwan aborigi nal groups, including 522 of the Ami, 246 of the Bunun, 227 of the Ata yal, and 214 of the Paiwan groups, were collected. Subjects with a mea n corpuscular volume below 85 fl and Hb A2 values below 3.5% were furt her studied with Southern hybridization to determine the status of alp ha-globin genes. In the Ami, 43 (4.1%) chromosomes had alpha-thalassem ia 1 and 43 (4.1%) had alpha-thalassemia 2. Of the 43 alpha-thalassemi a 1 chromosomes, 33 were of the Thailand, one of the Philippine, and n ine of the Southeast Asian deletion. Of the 43 alpha-thalassemia 2 chr omosomes, 42 were of the type I rightward deletion and one was of left ward deletion. In the Bunun group, one chromosome (0.2%) was of the Th ailand deletion and two (0.4%) were of type I rightward deletion. In t he Atayal group, only one chromosome (0.2%) was of the Philippine dele tion. In the Paiwan group, four chromosomes (0.9%) were of the Southea st Asian deletion and three (0.7%) were of the Thailand deletion. Amon g the four groups, the Ami had the highest prevalence of alpha-thalass emia, was also higher than that of the Chinese living in Taiwan.