Background and objective: Genotyping may be applied for rare blood group polymorphisms in a high-throughput mode as well for the molecular determination of blood groups due to unclear serological results.
Material and methods: We developed and validated a DNA typing method for the determination of KEL1/2, JK1/2, FY1/2, FY0, MNS1/2, MNS3/4, DO1/2, CO1/2 and LU1/2 alleles using a melting curve analysis downstream from a fully automated DNA extraction. All assays were validated in terms of specificity, sensitivity, assay variability and robustness. The usability was proven by a batch of 200 blood samples with partially known phenotype.
Results: Assays for all blood groups were within the range of specificity (100%), assay variability and robustness (coefficient of variance < 3%). Genotypes of 200 random platelet donors were fully consistent with existing phenotype data. The obtained genotype distribution is in complete concordance with existing data for the European population underlined by a complete absence of CO2 homozygous donors and the FY0 allele among the cohort.
Conclusion: We introduce an approach for blood group genotyping of particular samples or gene loci in glass capillary format and for medium-throughput analysis in 96/384-well format. The advantages of this real-time polymerase chain reaction method are its automation potential, the flexibility regarding hardware and the rapid cycling time.