Fast Haemoglobin Variant Found in Hawaiian‐Chinese‐Caucasian Family in Hawaii and a Chinese Subject in Taiwan

Abstract

Abstract. Haemoglobin J Honolulu, found in members of a family of mixed Hawaiian‐Chinese‐Caucasian ancestry, has been shown by chemical structure studies to have its structural alteration at position β‐59 where a threonyl group replaces the lysyl group normally occupying that position. The same anomaly was found recently in haemoglobin J Kaohsiung, a variant from a Chinese subject living in Taiwan. The relative amounts of haemoglobin A 0 to haemoglobin J Honolulu were 52/48; the corresponding ratio for A 0 /J Kaohsiung was 53/47. In both subjects there were no signs of anaemia resulting from the anomalous haemoglobins. Family studies in the Honolulu kindred are not sufficiently complete to provide conclusive evidence concerning which part of the ancestry, Chinese, Hawaiian, or Caucasian, is the source of the variant.