To examine the possible internal heterogeneity within the Basque
population, nine samples typed
for several HLA loci were compiled and HLA-A, B, C and DR loci were
analysed. First, the shared
features of HLA in Basques were analysed by principal component analysis
and genetic distances.
Two major Basque dialect groups (‘French’ and ‘Spanish’)
were considered. FST statistics were
computed and corrected for sampling intensity. The dialectal and
political division did not seem to
differentiate these two groups genetically. Analysis of Molecular Variance
also failed to show
consistently significant genetic variance components between
French and Spanish Basques. Thus, in
this particular example, linguistic diversity does not seem
to correlate with a genetic stratification.