Posted on 07/18/2013 7:11:46 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
/bingo
;’)
It was gratifying to read that O is only 1.15 million years old, and arose from A — the gene sequence for O doesn’t code for the protein because it is otherwise identical to A, but missing the first base pair.
The population of PreColumbian America appears to have been either 100 percent or nearly 100 percent O.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hh_antigen_system
[snip] Individuals with the rare Bombay phenotype (hh) do not express H antigen (also called substance H), the antigen which is present in blood group O. As a result, they cannot make A antigen (also called substance A) or B antigen (substance B) on their red blood cells, whatever alleles they may have of the A and B blood-group genes, because A antigen and B antigen are made from H antigen. For this reason people who have Bombay phenotype can donate RBCs to any member of the ABO blood group system (unless some other blood factor gene, such as Rhesus, is incompatible), but they cannot receive blood from any member of the ABO blood group system (which always contains one or more of A and B and H antigens), but only from other people who have Bombay phenotype... This very rare phenotype is generally present in about 0.0004% (about 4 per million) of the human population, though in some places such as Mumbai (formerly Bombay) locals can have occurrences in as much as 0.01% (1 in 10,000) of inhabitants and 1 in a million people in Europe. Given that this condition is very rare, any person with this blood group who needs an urgent blood transfusion will probably be unable to get it, as no blood bank would have any in stock. Those anticipating the need for blood transfusion may bank blood for their own use, but of course this option is not available in cases of accidental injury since one can not always plan for injury. [/snip]
Ouch.
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