Estimation of the Distribution of a Genetically Determined Enzyme Polymorphism by a Stochastical Outside Criterion

The remaining cholinesterase activity after incubation with paraoxon (as an indicator of the activity of human serumparaoxonase) shows a distribution with three clusters which could be explained, after an investigation of families, by a simple two‐allele‐model. A Stochastical outside criterion is given by the constellations of the values within the families. By modification of an iteration method described by FANGMEYER (1964) it is possible to estimate the distributions and frequencies of the three groups. A simulation study shows that the combination of the used method with the pure cluster analysis is advantageous.