The Cayapa Indians of Ecuador: a genetically isolated group with unexpected complement C7 M/N allele frequencies

The Cayapa Indians live in north-western Ecuador in close proximity to a Black population of African ancestry. C7 M/N allotyping has proved to be a good technique for plasma genetic analysis in several populations. Investigation of 124 Cayapa plasma samples revealed the highest allele frequency of C7(*)N observed in any population examined so far (0.36 versus 0.225 or lower). The marked difference in frequency compared with several Oriental populations, which are believed to have been derived from the same Asian population as native Amerindians, may reflect the effect of a small founder population followed by a high degree of genetic isolation. The allele frequency of 0.12 for C7(*)N determined for the neighbouring Black population supports the conclusion that there has been a lack of genetic admixture of Cayapas with other populations, confirming the results of ethnohistorical investigations and other protein polymorphism studies.