AN ESTIMATE OF GENETIC LOAD DISCLOSED BY INBREEDING AMONG THE MUSLIMS OF ALAPPUZHA, KERALA

Abstract

A cross sectional samples of 515 marriages of the Muslims of Alappuzha district of the state of Kerala were studied for estimating the component of geneiic load operating in the prenatal and postnatal stages. Consanguinity-associated prenatal and postnatal mortality was found to be 4.84 to 5.07 times higher than control. The genetic burden manifested in total prereproductive mortality in the group was estimated between 3.1009 and 3.1379 lethal equivalents per gamete. It suggests that a normal 'healthy' human being carries in heterozygote condition 7 lethal equivalent genes, if made homozygyous, they would kill an individual between birth and maturity. The high BfA ratio (83.74) is suggestive that mortality disclosed by . inbreeding in this group is predominantly from mutational load.