Evidence for a Possible Major Gene Effect in Absolute Finger Ridge Count

Abstract

Dermatoglyphics, as defined by finger ridge count, is considered a classic example of polygenic inheritance in man. A set of data containing samples from both Caucasian and Japanese populations are analyzed by fitting a mixture of normal distributions, utilizing maximum likelihood estimation. The results are homogeneous over all subsets of the data and suggest that a single major autosomal locus with two additive alleles may account for over half the variation of the quantitative phenotype absolute finger ridge count. Existence of this locus awaits confirmation by pedigree or linkage analyses.