ALFRED: allele frequency database
      The ALlele FREquency Database   
ALFRED is a resource of gene frequency data on human populations
supported by the U. S. National Science Foundation.
ALFRED detailed record information

Population Information

NameALFRED UIDPrimary LanguageLanguage Family

Geographic Location1:  1N, 29E; 11.5S, 41E  

Sites typed for this population: View List
Population Samples: See Sample Information
External Resources: Ethnologue: Language Map Record     The United Republic of Tanzania Record    Ethnologue: Language Description Record     Tanzania Record     World Fact Book Record     Tribal Map Record     Shaded Relief Map Record    
References: See references
Population Description: In Tanzania there are over 120 tribal groups, 95% of which are of Bantu origin. The official languages of the country are English and Swahili. Swahili is a unifying language spoken by almost the entire population; most people also speak a local language. In fact, the country claims to have the greatest linguistic diversity in all of Africa. Approximately one-third of the population is Muslim, one-third is Christian, and the remaining third practices a traditional form of ancestral worship. Although the country has faced increasing foreign contact, most tribes have maintained their cultural heritage.

Tanzania's extensive history goes back to prehistoric times. In Olduvai Gorge, one of the most famous archaeological sites, Homo habilis, one of modern human's ancestors was discovered. Historically the coastal area has been the setting for rivalry first between the Portuguese and Arab traders and later between various European powers. The country of Tanzania is the result of the political union between mainland Tanganyika and the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba in 1964. The two parts of the union attained independence from Britain separately, the mainland in 1961 and Zanzibar in 1963.
- Leakey MD. "A review of the Oldowan culture from Olduvai gorge, Tanzania". Nature (London) 210:462-6. (1966)

Sample Information:

Graph estimated heterozygosities for various sites

Sample Name: Tanzania, Mixed Unrelated

Sample UID: SA000086O

Sample Description: Collected by C. Menendez. Unrelated individuals from Ifakara in the Kilombero district of the Morogoro region, southeastern Tanzania. The sample was taken of newborns born at the St Francis District Hospital of Ifakara, which at the time of the study was the only government health facility of that level. The sample was selected from those births whose parents were permanent residents in the town. The population belonged to different ethnic groups, the most frequently represented were the following: Mndewe, Mpogoro, Mngoni, Mbunga, Mhehe, Mbena, and Mndamba. There were also a few Masais. The population of this area of Tanzania, the Kilombero valley, was constructed through the government "forced" migration which occurred during the late sixties and seventies and that implied the movement of people from different regions of the country to this fertile valley. It is for this reason that there is a varied ethnic composition in the Ifakara area.

Number of Chromosomes: 80

Relation to Other Samples:

- Martinez-Arias R, Comas D, Mateu E, Bertranpetit J. "Glucocerebrosidase pseudogene variation and Gaucher disease recognizing pseudogene tracts in GBA alleles.". Human Mutation (2001) No URL link out.

- Mateu E, Calafell F, Bonne-Tamir B, Kidd JR, Casals T, Kidd KK, Bertranpetit J. "Allele Frequencies in a Worldwide Survey of a CA Repeat in the First Intron of the CFTR Gene". Human Heredity 49:15-20. (1999) Online citation.

- Mateu E, Calafell F, Lao O, Bonne-Tamir B, Kidd JR, Pakstis A, Kidd KK, Bertranpetit J. "Worldwide genetic analysis of the CFTR region". Am. J. Hum. Genet. 68:103-117. (2001) Online citation.

- Menendez C, Kahigwa E, Hirt R, Vounatsou P, Aponte JJ, Font F, Acosta CJ, Schellenberg DM, Galindo CM, Kimario J, Urassa H, Brabin B, Smith TA, Kitua AY, Tanner M, Alonso PL. "Randomised placebo-controlled trial of iron supplementation and malaria chemprophylaxis for prevention of severe anaemia and malaria in Tanzanian infants.". Lancet 350:844-850. (1997) Online citation.

Sample Information:

Graph estimated heterozygosities for various sites

Sample Name: dar es Salaam

Sample UID: SA003293R

Sample Description:This sample consists of individuals from dar es Salaam.

Note: This sample information is not fully curated. For additional information about the sample, consult the publications under "References". The sample was entered as part of data submission by Eisenberg DA.

Number of Chromosomes: 152

Relation to Other Samples:

- Eisenberg DA, Kuzawa, CW, Hayes MG "Worldwide allele frequencies of the human apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene: climate, local adaptations and evolutionary history". American Journal of Physical Anthropology 143:100-11. (2010) Online citation.

- Kalaria RN, Ogeng'o JA, Patel NB, Sayi JG, Kitinya JN, Chande HM, Matuja WB, Mtui EP, Kimani JK, Premkumar DR, Koss E, Gatere S, Friedland RP. "Evaluation of risk factors for Alzheimer's disease in elderly east Africans". Brain Res Bull. 44:573-7.. (1997) Online citation.

1Geographic Coordinates represent two opposite corners of a rectangle encompassing the area where the population lives.This data is preliminary and changing.


Originally prototyped by Michael Osier with the aid of Kei Cheung
Upgrades and maintenance since 2002 by Haseena Rajeevan