RESUMEN
The present study involves the evaluation of digital dermatoglyphic traits of 2185 unrelated individuals (1152 females and 1033 males) from 17 natural valleys of the four Basque provinces (Vizcaya, Guipúzcoa, Navarra, and Alava) in the Spanish Basque Country. Univariate intervalley and between-sex comparisons were carried out by means of chi-square contingency analysis for pattern types and by means of one-way analysis of variance for ridge counts. Multivariate intervalley comparison was carried out by means of correspondence analysis for pattern types and by principal component analysis for ridge counts. The results of this study are notable for the following findings: (1) in general, all variables are significantly heterogeneous among valley populations; (2) there was a greater differentiation among the valley populations than between sexes in one valley population; (3) affinities among the intervalley populations depend on the variables considered; (4) the valley populations from Vizcaya resemble those from the Pyrenees; (5) based on interprovince comparisons, the Vizcaya and Navarra samples are the closest: (6) in general, the valley samples from Alava are the worst clustered; (7) the universality of dermatoglyphic component structure fits better in males.
Asunto(s)
Dermatoglifia , Etnicidad , Análisis de Varianza , Distribución de Chi-Cuadrado , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , EspañaRESUMEN
Numerous studies have shown there is consistent evidence implicating genetic factors in the etiology of autism. In some cases chromosomal abnormalities have been identified. One type of these abnormalities is gaps and breaks nonrandomly located in chromosomes, denominated fragile sites (FS). We cytogenetically analyzed a group of autistic individuals and a normal population, and we examined the FS found in both samples with the aim of (1) comparing their FS expression, (2) ascertaining whether any FS could be associated with our autistic sample, and (3) examining if there are differences between individual and pooled-data analyses. Different statistical methods were used to analyse the FS of pooled and individual data. Our results show that there are statistically significant differences in the spontaneous expression of breakages between patients and controls, with a minimal sex difference. Using the method for pooled data, eight autosomal FS have preferential expression in patients and five patients were found to be positive at FS Xq27.3. With the method per-individual analysis, four FS emerged as specific in our autistic sample. Inferences of FS from pooled data were different from those of individual data. The findings suggest that although analysis of pooled data is necessitated by the problem of sparse data, analysis of single individuals is essential to know the significance of FS in autism.