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Ear wax table

By razib on January 31, 2006.

I've been getting queries about the ear wax paper...below the fold I've copied table 1, which shows the frequencies of the haplotypes in various populations.

  • First, note the sample sizes.
  • Keep these sample sizes in mind as you try to get an understanding of the clines the authors were talking about.
  • Greg Cochran points out that since dry ear wax is a recessive trait it seems plausible that the phenotype being selected is different. It might be dominant or additive so that a total approach toward fixation of the allele would not be necessary for the fitness to be maximized. Consider the earwax trait, if allele frequences are 0.5 for both A and G in a population, you have 0.25 = AA, 0.5 = AG and 0.25 = GG. So Only 1/4 benefit from the fitness increasing trait. If it is a dominant feature somewhere else, you flip it, and with a 0.5 A frequency 3/4 of the population would maximize their fitness.
  • On the bit about randon genetic drift vs. selection, look at the map, if this allele was approaching fixation via stochastic processes it seems peculiar that it would exhibit a continental cline. Fragmented populations can fix at alternative alleles, but the distribution would be patchy and intercalated, not suggestive of a broad trend around an East Asian mode.

Nature Genetics
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Table 1

Published online: 29 January 2006; | doi:10.1038/ng1733

A SNP in the ABCC11 gene is the determinant of human earwax type

Koh-ichiro Yoshiura, Akira Kinoshita, Takafumi Ishida, Aya Ninokata, Toshihisa Ishikawa, Tadashi Kaname, Makoto Bannai, Katsushi Tokunaga, Shunro Sonoda, Ryoichi Komaki, Makoto Ihara, Vladimir A Saenko, Gabit K Alipov, Ichiro Sekine, Kazuki Komatsu, Haruo Takahashi, Mitsuko Nakashima, Nadiya Sosonkina, Christophe K Mapendano, Mohsen Ghadami, Masayo Nomura, De-Sheng Liang, Nobutomo Miwa, Dae-Kwang Kim, Ariuntuul Garidkhuu, Nagato Natsume, Tohru Ohta, Hiroaki Tomita, Akira Kaneko, Mihoko Kikuchi, Graciela Russomando, Kenji Hirayama, Minaka Ishibashi, Aya Takahashi, Naruya Saitou, Jeffery C Murray, Susumu Saito, Yusuke Nakamura
& Norio Niikawa
 
Table 1 Genotypes at the rs17822931 site and frequencies of alleles A and Delta27 of ABCC11 among different ethnic populations
No. of individuals with genotypes
Ethnic populations Tribes or inhabitants studied AA (frequency) GA GG No. of individuals genotyped Frequency of allele A Frequency of allele Delta27 Collected by
Korean Taegu inhabitant 99 (1.000) 0 0 99 1.000 0/190 D.-K.K.
Chinese Shanxi inhabitant (Northern Han Chinese) 74 (1.000) 0 0 74 1.000 N.S.
Jingsu inhabitant (Northern Han Chinese) 110 (0.924) 9 0 119 0.962 N.S.
Inhabitants of Fujian, Guanjgdong and Hunan Provinces (Southern Han Chinese) 249 (0.750) 63 8 332 0.845 N.S.
Han Chinese from multi-regions 42 (0.808) 10 0 52 0.904 0/104 D.S.L.
Mongolian Khalkha tribe 126 (0.759) 36 4 166 0.867 0/252 T.I., A.G.
Japanese Nagasaki inhabitant (western prefecture of Japan mainland) 87 (0.690) 35a 4 126 0.829 1/668 N.N.
Okinawa people (southwestern prefecture of Japan) 30 (0.517) 25 3 58 0.733 T.K.
Yonakuni islander (western island of Japan) 13 (0.433) 15 2 30 0.683 0/60 S.S.
Ainu in Biratori-Nibutani village in Hokkaido 32 (0.552) 24 2 58 0.759 0/116 T.I., N.N.
Vietnamese People from multi-regions 82 (0.536) 60 11 153 0.732 N.Na.
Dravidian Inhabitants of Tamil Nadu in India 27 (0.540) 17 6 50 0.710 0/100 T.I.
Thai Northern Thai (Lahu, Shan, Lisu, Hmong, Akha, Mlabri and Karen (Mae-sot Thai) tribes combined) 215 (0.505) 163 48 426 0.696 0/158 (Karen) T.I., K.H.
Central Thai in Bangkok 31 (0.633) 10 8 49 0.735 1/100 (Bangkokian) T.I.
Southern Thai (Urak Lawoi and Sakai tribes combined) 2 (0.026) 23 52 77 0.175 0/52 (Sakai) T.I.
Vedda Native people in Sri Lanka 7 (0.350) 12 1 20 0.650 T.I.
Indonesian Dayak tribe in Kalimantan 12 (0.293) 23 6 41 0.573 T.I.
Toraja and Bugis tribes in Sulawesi 27 (0.270) 49 24 100 0.515 T.I.
Floresian 18 (0.300) 25 17 60 0.508 T.I.
Sumbanese 9 (0.180) 16 25 50 0.340 T.I.
Dani tribe in Irian Jaya 0 (0.000) 2 31 33 0.030 T.I.
Malaysian Sabah in North Borneo 24 (0.393) 27 10 61 0.566 0/132 (Sabah) K.H.
Bentong tribe 8 (0.113) 40 23 71 0.394 0/138 K.H.
Taiwanese Taiwan Aborigine (Yami and Ami combined) 34 (0.330) 48 21 103 0.563 0/100 (Ami) T.I.
Native American 6 (0.300) 8 6 20 0.500 2/40 R.K.
Philippino Palawan 11 (0.229) 23 14 48 0.469 T.I.
Easter Islander 4 (0.138) 18 7 29 0.448 S.S.
Bolivian Aymara inhabitants 5 (0.167) 14 11 30 0.400 9/60 S.S.
Kazakh 6 (0.200) 11 13 30 0.383 G.K.A.
Native Paraguayan Ayoreos 2 (0.040) 34 14 50 0.380 0/98 K.H.
Sanapana 0 (0.000) 14 61 75 0.093 0/150 K.H.
Russian 5 (0.045) 45 62 112 0.246 0/208 V.A.S.
Solomon Islander 2 (0.323) 25 35 62 0.234 0/122 K.H.
Pacific islander 1 (0.143) 1 5 7 0.214 0/14 Coriell
French From the CEPH families 1 (0.083) 3 8 12 0.208 0/24 CEPH
Andean people 1 (0.100) 2 7 10 0.200 1/20 Coriell
Hungarian 0 (0.000) 4 6 10 0.200 0/20 Coriell
Jewish Ashkenazi 0 (0.000) 4 6 10 0.200 0/20 Coriell
Ukrainian 0 (0.000) 15 27 42 0.179 0/84 V.A.S.
Papuan Papua, New Guinea 1 (0.026) 11 26 38 0.171 0/68 T.I.
European American From CEPH families without the French and Venezuelans 1 (0.012) 16 65 82 0.110 0/164 CEPH
Vanuatu islander Aneityum and Santo islanders combined 1 (0.011) 17 74 92 0.103 0/266 (Any and Gau islanders) K.H.
Iberian 0 (0.000) 2 8 10 0.100 Coriell
Colombian 0 (0.000) 2 15 17 0.059 0/34 S.S.
Venezuelan Inhabitants of Ye'Kuana and Sanuma villages 0 (0.000) 3 29 32 0.047 0/64 S.S.,CEPH
African From various sub-Saharan nations 0 (0.000) 1 10 11 0.045 0/22 C.K.M.
African American 0 (0.000) 0 10 10 0.000 0/20 Coriell
D.-K.K., D.-K. Kim; N.S., N. Saitou; N.N., N. Niikawa; D.-S.L., D.-S. Liang; T.I., T. Ishida; A.G., A. Garidkhuu; T.K., T. Kaname; S.S., S. Sonoda; N.Na., N. Natsume; K.H., K. Hirayama; R.K., R. Komaki; G.K.A., G.K. Alipov; V.A.S., V.A. Saenko; C.K.M., C.K. Mapendanno; Coriell, from the Coriell Institute; CEPH, from the CEPH families.

aOne exceptional case of dry cerumen who has Delta27 on the G allele is included.
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Means I have some genes from somewhere east of the European subcontinent. Europeans overall only are 3 percent dry earwax. It's a trait that originated in the northeast of Asia. Koreans and Northern Han Chinese have 100 percent dry earwax. I've got to say, it's irritating to have, but I've learned that East Asian people use their own little device for getting the stuff off. I've never seen one myself, but I should really seek it out in a Chinese neighborhood.