Kuru is a prion disease of the Fore people of highland New Guinea. Kuru is similar to Creutzfeldt-Kakob disease. It was once transmitted by the consumption of deceased relatives at mortuary feasts, a ritual that was ended by about 1960. Using archived tissue samples, Mead et al. (2009) investigated genetic variants that might confer resistance to kuru. The data in the accompanying table are genotypes at codon 129 of the prion protein gene of young and elderly individuals all having the disease. Since the elderly individuals have survived long exposure to kuru, unusually common genotypes in this goup might indicate resistant genotypes.
|
genotypes at codon 129 |
genotypes at codon 129 |
|
| age |
MM |
MV |
VV |
| elderly |
13 |
77 |
14 |
| young |
22 |
12 |
14 |
a. Test whether genotype frequencies differ between the 2 age groups.