ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: The environmental and life-style conditions of the Kola Sami could have influenced the population-specific frequencies of the AGXTProIILeu allele, and certain alleles of APOE and LCT genes, involved respectively, in the metabolism of animal proteins, lipids and milk sugar. Study Design. DNA samples were collected from the Sami population of Lovozero settlement (Murmansk Region) in 2005. METHODS: The analysis of the traditional diet of the Kola Sami was made using the data of ethnographic studies conducted in the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries. Frequencies of the AGXT ProllLeu, APOE*e4 alleles and LCT gene CC w9 genotype were defined by molecular-genetic analysis. RESULTS: The specificity of the Kola Sami gene pool is in the lower frequency of APOE*e4 allele compared with the Sami of Finland (0.205 and 0.310, respectively) and when compared with other groups (except the Skolt) in the higher frequency of hypolactasia conditioned by the CC(-13910) genotype of the LCT gene (0.484). CONCLUSIONS: The high prevalence of the AGXT allele T bearers among Kola Sami (0.273) does not contradict the hypothesis of the adaptive role this allele plays in populations with a traditionally high intake of meat.