Morpho-behavioural genetic variation and distance among four Reddi Sub-castes of Andhra Pradesh, India

common agreement in establishing their heritability Abstract Morphological and behavioural traits indicate inter and intra population variation. In the present study eight morphological and five behavioural traits have been investigated to assess the variation within and between randomly selected 800 unrelated male individuals, 200 from each of the four sub-castes of Reddis namely Desuri Reddis (DSR), Pedakanti Reddis (PKR), Motati Reddis (MTR) and Kodide Reddis (KDR) from Andhra Pradesh. The free earlobe frequency is varies from 74.50% (DSR) to 49.50% (MTR). The frequency of persons with cleft chin ranges from 37.00% in DSR to 51.50% in MTR. The allelic frequencies of recessive non-cleft (cl) are high in KDR (0.8185) and low in MTR (0.6964). The percentage of square shape chin form is higher than round and pointed ones in all the sub-groups of Reddis. The frequency of free type eyebrows is more common than attached type in all the sub-castes of the study. The incidence of attached eyebrows is fairly higher among KDR (42.50%) and MTR (38.50%). Inter-population chi-square values show that except MTR-PKR, all the groups are highly significant with regard to mid-phalangeal hair. The R-type of hand clasping predominates L-type in all the populations. The percentage of rollers in KDR are very low (28.58%) compared to other groups. The percentage of tongue folders are higher in KDR (61.50%) and low in DSR (37.50%). The morphological distance shows the formation of the minimal cluster by the DSR and PKR and joined by MTR at second level whereas the KDR differs widely from others. It reveals that genetically the DSR and PKR are very near which may be due to their existence in the same region.