Chen Qing, a researcher at the transfusion institute of the Jiangsu Blood Center, and his team recently discovered an A3 subgroup in ABO blood system caused by a new allelic mutation, which was published by GenBank, an open access, annotated collection of all publicly available nucleotide sequences and their protein translations.
When a pregnant woman in Nanjing was undergoing routine tests, her blood type displayed mixed results. To accurately test her blood type, the hospital sent her samples to the Jiangsu Blood Center for further testing.
Based on further DNA testing, it was found that the expecting mother had Type A blood, but it was an A subgroup due to an ABO allelic mutation.
ABO blood type is one of the most important red blood cell groups in the world. Accurately determining the antigen of ABO blood type is very important for transfusions, organ and bone marrow transplants. This blood type was discovered by Karl Landsteiner, a researcher at the pathological institute of the University of Vienna, in 1900, and more than 380 alleles have been discovered so far.
