Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 August 2014
Taste threshold for phenylthiocarbamide were studied among 242 Tibetans, 125 Spitians and 314 Lahaulis, the three Mongoloid populations of the Indo-Tibetan border. No statistically significant sex differences have been observed in the frequency of tasters and non-tasters in the present study. The frequency of non-tasters among Spitians (12.00%) and Lahaulis 12.73%) is strikingly similar and slightly higher than among Tibetans (10.74%). Statistically the difference in the three populations is non-significant (χ2 = 0.95, df = 2, p>0.05). In spite of the considerable Hindu admixture with a high frequency of non-taster gene, Spitians and Lahaulis have maintained a rather low frequency of non-tasters. This is true of populations all along the cis-Himalayan region, where similar Mongoloid and Hindu admixture has taken place. Besides the main Mongoloid element the proto-Australoid racial strain in the region may also be considered responsible for lowering the frequency of non-tasters.