Graphical representation of blood group data of human populations

Abstract

A general survey of various measures of diversity within and distance between populations in gene frequencies of blood group systems is given. A method of ordering populations by an overall measure of diversity within and of clustering populations in terms of differences in pattern of diversity in different blood group systems is developed. Principal coordinate analysis and multidimensional scaling are used to represent populations with given distances between them graphically in an appropriate dimensional Euclidean space. Such graphical representations together with dendrograms are of great help in studying interrelationships between populations. The methods are illustrated using blood group data on some human populations.