Genetic Load in Brazilian Indians

Abstract

The mean number of lethal equivalents among South Brazilian Indians has been estimated as 070 + 1.17 per gamete, measured from birth up to the age of 15. Although the estimate for the Calngang Indians alone was extremely low (0.08), our data do not deny the hypothesis that Indians, Mestizos, and "Whites" have the same amount of genetic load as revealed in the offspring of consanguineous marriages, since the errors corresponding to all the estimates are relatively large. Some suggestion is obtained that this load may be mostly mutational. The total mutation rate per gamete has been estimated as 0.03-0.04, which is of the same order of magnitude as those calculated for Caucasians.