PHENYLTHIOCARBAMIDE (PTC) TASTE SENSITIVITY AMONG INDIAN POPULATION WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO RONGMEI NAGA TRIBE OF MANIPUR, INDIA

ABSTRACT The taste sensitivity of Phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) among humans is a genetically inherited trait, which follows the Mendelian Law of inheritance. Its prevalence is widely studied among Indian populations but a comprehensive picture is lacking. The objective of the present study was to find out the PTC taste sensitivity in Rongmei Naga tribe of Manipur as well as to explore a comparative picture of distribution of gene among the Indian population and simultaneously to understand the association of the gene with alcoholism, tobaccoism and smoking. To achieve the objective PTC serial dilution method was used to find out the taster and non-tasters followed by computation of allele frequency using the Hardy-Weinberg methods. In addition, information on demographic details and dietary practices were also recorded. A total of 83.92% male, 87.03.09% female subjects were found to be tasters for Phenylthiocarbamide (PTC), among the Rongmei Naga Tribe of Manipur State. Allele frequency for taster TT (homozygous dominant) was found to be 0.47 whereas for nontaster (tt), it was 0.37 and for Tt (heterozygous) it was 0.26. It can be inferred from 2 test, odds ratio and correlation analysis that there is no association of PTC taste sensitivity with alcoholism, tobaccoism and smoking among the studied population. The tasters and non-tasters were found in the ratio of 3:1 among the Indian populations. There is wide variation in respect of prevalence of PTC taste sensitivity gene among Indians. It varies among ethnic groups, regions and states. However, the variation was found to be insignificant, as revealed by one-way-ANOVA analysis.