A new approach for interpreting the genetic diversity in space: ‘Mobile Site Method’. Application to Gm haplotype distribution of twenty‐seven Amerindian tribes from North and Central America

Abstract

We present a new approach, called 'Mobile Site Method' (MSM), to the construction of 'genetic similarity maps' more efficient than that described in a preceding paper (Hazout et al. 1991). After building a triangular mesh between the geographical sites, the method consists of moving these locations at each iteration to reduce the overall differences between the geographic and genetic distances. The genetic similarity map, i.e. the final distorted map, allows the interpretation of the genetic diversity of a population set. We have applied this method to the study of Gm immunoglobulin allotypes of twenty-seven Amerindian groups from North and Central America. By a local weighted linear regression, we have reconstituted the distorted contour of America. This representation completes the observations of the sites during the map distortion. In this study, we have defined a large geographical factor in the genetic data (84% of the variability explained), related to a linguistic factor.