The importance of being heterozygote: effects of RHD-genotype-sex interaction on the physical and mental health of a non-clinical population.

ABSTRACT: Human populations, especially European, are polymorphic in the RHD gene. A significant fraction of their members carry no copy of the coding section of RHD gene, which results in their Rh-negative blood type. Theoretically, this polymorphism should be unstable. Carriers of the less frequent allele are penalized by reduced fertility because of the immunization of RhD-negative mothers by their RhD-positive babies, which results in hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn in their subsequent progeny. For about 90 years, some form of balancing selection has been suspected to sustain this polymorphism. Several recent studies showed that the RhD-positive heterozygotes express higher viability than both types of homozygotes. However, the genotype of subjects in these studies was estimated only

SUBMITTER: Flegr J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8578618 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature