Duffy blood group system genotyping in an urban Tunisian population.

Background: The Duffy blood group system, besides its relevance in transfusion medicine, is of major interest for population genetics. In fact, the Duffy molecule is the only red cell receptor for Plasmodium vivax, thus the fixation of FY*silent allele in western south-Saharan Africa resulted in the absence of this type of malaria in that area (for a review see Kwiatowski, Am J Hum Genet 77:171–192, 2005). For the Duffy functional role see, for example, Daniels (Vox Sanguinis 93:331–340, 2007).Methods: Duffy blood group distribution in 115 unrelated Tunisians was determined using the polymerase chain reaction with sequence specific primer (PCR-SSP) method detecting the five allelic versions of the FY gene. The red cell antigenic FY phenotype, for each donor, was deduced through DNA analysis. The blood samples of the positive FY*X alleles were investigated by serological methods, mainly the fixation–elution technique.Results: The following allele frequencies were found (after having excluded FY*X, which ha...