Blood Types

Blood Types
By: Jay Patel

Blood Types are an example of genes with multiple alleles. There are four blood types, A, B, AB, and O. Your blood type is determined by what your blood contains, and certain antigens it has, like the A or B antigen. Also, there is a third antigen, the Rh factor, that is either present (+) or not (-)

• Blood Type A: has only the A antigen. Allele is IA.
• Blood Type B: has only the B antigen. Allele is IB
• Blood Type AB: has both the A and B antigen. Allele is IA IB
• Blood Type O: has no antigens at all. Allele is i.

Depending on what type of blood you have, you can donate blood. 

• O is the universal donor, and can donate blood to anyone. O can only receive from O.
• AB is the universal receiver, and can receive blood from everyone. AB can only donate to AB.

What I learned was the different blood types and how donating and receiving blood works. I learned that there are specific blood types that can donate. What surprised me was how unlucky the O blood is. This can be applied outside biology through genetics and forensics, and blood types can be used to determine parentage in a mix-up, and can be used to determine genetics of a person.

Citations:

American Red Cross. "Blood Types." Recrossblood.org, www.redcrossblood.org/learn-about-blood/blood-types.

Notes from Mr. Black's class