Transferrin variants in Greeks.

The transferrins are a group of iron-binding glucoproteins migrating in the 3-globulin region on starch gel electrophoresis (Smithies and Hiller, i959). Commonly, there is a single iron-binding band called transferrin C, but faster (B variants) and slower (D variants) migrating bands are occasionally present. They are termed in order of electrophoretic mobility towards the anode Bo, Bo-i, B1, B1-2, B2, B3, C, Do, D4, D1, D2, and D3 (Bearn and Parker, I964). Family studies have indicated that the different transferrins are genetically controlled by a number of autosomal genes (Smithies, I958; Parker and Bearn, I962; Arends, Gallango, Parker, and Bearn, I962; Lai, I963; Glen-Bott, Harris, Robson, Beam, and Parker, I964). Individuals with two transferrin bands, i.e. B1C, are heterozygous for the genes controlling the B1 and C variants, while individuals with one transferrin band only are homozygous for the corresponding gene. The phenotype B2C occurs with a frequency of around i %O in Caucasian populations (Beam and Parker, I964). The phenotype Bo-iC with a frequency of 8% in Navajo Indians (Parker and Bean, i96ia), the phenotype D1C with a frequency of I22% among Negro populations (Neel, Robinson, Zuelzer, Livingstone and Sutton, i96i; Allison and Barnicot, ig60), and the phenotype DchiC with a frequency of 6%o among Chinese (Parker and Bearn, i96ib; Kirk and Lai, i96i). The remaining phenotypes appear to be rather rare. This paper reports the frequency of transferrin variants in Greeks.