Anthropological significance of dermatoglyphic trait variation: an intra-Tunisian population analysis.

Abstract

Background: The human dermatoglyphic traits present variations within and between populations and could be used for estimating the genetic distances between populations. Aim: This study aims to characterize the dermatoglyphic traits in the Tunisian population and to analyze eventual differences between men and women and between individuals according to their geographical distribution. Subjects and Methods: Several dermatoglyphic traits have been determined and analysed for 343 Tunisians belonging to six groups distributed on different Tunisian regions. For statistical analysis, the percent frequency, chi square test and t-test were used. The cluster analysis was applied on D2 Mahalanobis distance matrix. Results: The chi-square test revealed high significant differences between the sexes for the frequencies of arches in the case of the fifth finger and for the frequencies of loops in the case of the fourth left finger and the first left finger. The difference of the distribution of whorl type between men and women was statistically significant for the fourth left finger. While no significant differences were found between sexes in finger ridge counts. Conclusion: The intra-Tunisian population analysis shows that Tunisians living in the North and the expanded East Centre of Tunisia are genetically very close, while Tunisians from the extreme East Center and the South of Tunisia are relatively less close to them. This conclusion agrees with that deduced from recent molecular marker analyses and shows that the multivariate analysis of a high number of quantitative digito-palmar dermatoglyphic traits represents a powerful and shrewd tool in intra-population analyses.

Key words: Dermatoglyphics, Fingerprints, Tunisian population, Cluster analysis, Intra-population analysis

doi: 10.4314/ijma.v1i4.1