The biomaterials currently available for this population are shown in the table below:

Population Description

Principal Investigator for Community Engagement and Sample Collection:
Charles Rotimi, Howard University, Washington, DC
Duncan Ngare, Moi University, Eldoret, Kenya

These cell lines and DNA samples were prepared from blood samples collected in Kinyawa, Kenya. All of the samples are from individuals who identified themselves as having four Maasai grandparents. There are samples from 30 mother-father-adult child trios in HAPMAPPT08 and 90 unrelated individuals in HAPMAPPT09.

The Maasai are classified as a Nilotic population and speak Maa, a Nilo-Saharan language. It is important to include a reference to "Kinyawa, Kenya" when describing the source of these samples (and to use the abbreviation "MKK" where a shorthand designation is needed). Including the name of the locality and the country where these samples were collected reinforces the point that the sample set, while in no way genetically "atypical", does not necessarily represent all Maasai people, whose population history is complex. The population should not be described merely as "African", "Sub-Saharan African", "East African", or "Kenyan", since each of those designators encompasses many populations with many different geographic ancestries.

It may be scientifically appropriate to pool data from these samples with data from other ancestrally related groups, when the data show that the groups have similar allele frequencies. If the groups all have African ancestry, the designation "African ancestry" (abbreviation: AFA) to describe the combined analysis panel is recommended. If only groups very closely related to the Maasai have similar allele frequencies, then another abbreviation may need to be used.

Additional guidance about how to refer to the HapMap populations can be found at http://www.hapmap.org/citinghapmap.html.

Policies and Guidelines

• Guidelines for Referring to the HapMap Populations in Publications and Presentations
• Important Information for Investigators Who Order HapMap Samples
• Information Provided to HapMap Sample Donor Communities
• Secondary Distribution and Shared Use of Cell Cultures and DNA Samples