Enzyme Variation Among the Muslim Community of Punjab

To characterize genetically the Muslim population of Punjab, a north–west Indian state, a biochemical genetics investigation using red cell enzyme markers was planned. For this, blood samples from a total of 992 Muslim subjects, belonging to the Sunni (803) and Shia (189) endogamous sects inhabiting Malerkotla town were collected. Haemolysates were analysed for the phenotypes of seven different polymorphic red cell enzymes viz., Acid Phosphatase locus 1, Phosphoglucomutase locus 1, Adenylate Kinase locus 1, Adenosine Deaminase, Phosphohexose Isomerase, Esterase D and Glyoxalase locus 1, following standard electrophoretic techniques. The results of the present study demonstrate that there were no significant genetic differences between the Sunni and Shia Muslim populations of Malerkotla and their genetic constitutions were similar. Compared with their counterparts reported from various other states of India, the two Muslim groups studied here from Punjab were found to be genetically homogeneous with most of them .