Blood group phenotypes and hemoglobin S. An anthropologic study in two Israeli Arab communities

Abstract

Blood group phenotypes of anthropologic significance are described for inhabitants of two Israeli Arab communities with foci of hemoglobin S (HbS). The presence of Fy(a-b-), Rho, hrV+, and Js(a+) among the Hulah Valley Bedouin, and of Fy(a-b-), Rho, and hrV+ in Acre are indicative of genetic admixture of African origin. These non-African foci of HbS are thereby distinguished from previously described HbS foci in India, Greece, and Turkey where low or absent Rho phenotypes imply secondary dispersions of the HbS gene from the Arabian peninsula.