RHD allele distribution in Africans of Mali.
BACKGROUND
Aberrant and non-functional RHD alleles are much more frequent in Africans than in Europeans. The DAU cluster of RHD alleles exemplifies that the alleles frequent in Africans have evaded recognition until recently. A comprehensive survey of RHD alleles in any African population was lacking.


RESULTS
We surveyed the molecular structure and frequency of RHD alleles in Mali (West Africa) by evaluating 116 haplotypes. Only 69% could be attributed to standard RHD (55%) or the RHD deletion (14%). The aberrant RHD allele DAU-0 was predicted for 19%, RHDPsi for 7% and Ccdes for 4% of all haplotypes. DAU-3 and the new RHD allele RHD(L207F), dubbed DMA, were found in one haplotype each. A PCR-RFLP for the detection of the hybrid Rhesus box diagnostic for the RHD deletion in Europeans was false positive in 9 individuals, including all carriers of RHDPsi. Including two silent mutations and the RHD deletion, a total of 9 alleles could be differentiated.


CONCLUSIONS
Besides standard RHD and the RHD deletion, DAU-0, RHDPsi and Ccdes are major alleles in Mali. Our survey proved that the most frequent alleles of West Africans have been recognized allowing to devise reliable genotyping and phenotyping strategies.
D000483:Alleles; D001483:Base Sequence; D044383:Black People / Q000235:genetics*; D005787:Gene Frequency; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D008302:Mali / Q000208:ethnology; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D012204:Rh-Hr Blood-Group System / Q000235:genetics*; D017384:Sequence Deletion
D012204:Rh-Hr Blood-Group System; C026410:Rho(D) antigen