Environmental selection influences the diversity of TLR genes in ethnic Rajbanshi population of North Bengal Region of India

BACKGROUND: Toll-like receptors are the mediators of the innate immune response to pathogens. In human, this gene family regulates the inflammatory pathways and is associated with the susceptibility to infection. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The distribution and the diversity patterns of TLR genes in Rajbanshi population (n = 85) who are the inhabitants of the Northern part of West Bengal, have been investigated in the present study. PCR-SSP was done for all the ten TLR genes. We have also constructed the phylogenetic tree principal component analysis and genetic distance for all the four populations. RESULTS: It has been observed that in Rajbanshi population, the frequency of TLR8 (0.894) is higher and the frequency of TLR2 (0.176) is very low. Dendrogram based analysis, as well as the PCA plot, documented the closeness of Rajbanshi and Gurkha population. However, Rabha is distantly related to Rajbanshi population though evidences suggest their emergence from the same East-Asian lineage. Genetic distances between Rajbanshi–Gurkha and Rajbanshi–Muslim are very much smaller than that of Rajbanshi–Rabha populations. INTERPRETATIONS & CONCLUSIONS: Therefore, it may be concluded that Rajbanshi, Gurkha and Muslims are very much mixed populations and have genetic closeness due to exposure to similar environmental conditions. On the other hand, the Rabhas strictly follow the endogamy and are restricted to a particular region and therefore maintain considerable distances with the other three populations. The data showed some interesting observations which deviate the contemporary thought in respect to the population genetics.