Mutation rates from rare variants of proteins in Indian tribes

Recent attempts to estimate mutation rates in man have resulted in some theoretical developments. Recently, Nei (1977) provided a new formula for estimating mutation rates from electrophoretically detected rare protein variants. His formula is applied here to estimate mutation rates from such variants among the Kadars of Kerala and five tribes of Andhra Pradesh in India. The estimates seem to differ from Nei's estimate on South American Indians by an order of magnitude, although the standard errors associated with such estimates are rather large.