Allelic frequency of PAR-2 in the Puerto Rican population a possible insight to asthma prevalence.

Abstract

The Human Genome Project has sequenced the genetic complement of our species: the DNA. Such sequencing was performed using DNA randomly collected from individuals of diverse ethnicity backgrounds. This aleatory selection does not warrant that all existent populations are equally represented in the generated and published "consensus sequence". There are DNA genetic variations known as polymorphisms. Commonly scientists employ polymorphisms to explain the occurrence of complex diseases in a certain population. In this study, by analyzing the Puerto Rican, we identified six polymorphisms (two novels) within a region of one thousand paired bases of the PAR-2 receptor. Although previously characterized in population of African and European descent, up to now, it hasn't been studied in Hispanic populations. The studied population showed a borderline significant value (p=0.06) in the Hardy Weinberg test, suggesting alterations to the gene independent assortment law. We also evaluate the possibility of employing PAR-2 as an asthma predisposition marker.