Blood Type Testing Lab

Kantapon Wijittrasab
Wongbaworn Chavengvorakul
Introduction:
Genes are usually having two alleles but genes can also have more than two alleles,
which called multiple alleles. The best example of multiple alleles trait is human ABO blood
group. Blood group was determined by looking at antigens locating on the surface of red blood
cells. The gene that controls the production of ABO system blood antigen was located on the
ninth chromosome of human. This gene can be categorized into more than two alleles: Ia,Ib,i.
Alleles Ia control the production of antigen a on red blood cells, I b control the production of
antigen b on red blood cells and i will result in no antigen on red blood cell.
Human ABO blood type were discovered in 1900 and 1901 by Karl Landsteiner in order
to find out why sometimes blood transfusion cause death and some save a patient. In 1930, he
received the Nobel Prize for his discovery of blood types and can save more patient life. The
ABO system consists of A, B, AB, and O blood types. People with type A will have antigen-A
and people with type B will have antigen-B. People with type AB have both antigen-A and B and
people with O type will have neither antigen-A nor B. For people with AB blood are called
universal recipients because they can receive any of the ABO blood types. There are six possible
genotypes and four possible blood types (phenotypes) see on (Figure 1). Both A and B alleles are
dominant over O allele for instance, who has AO genotype will have an A phenotype. The Rh
system are also cause the problem from the blood transfusion. They classifies as Rh-positive or
Rh-negative, based on Rh antibodies in the blood. People with Rh (+) can receive Rh (-) blood,
but people with Rh (-) will have a transfusion reaction if they receive Rh (+) blood.
Parent
Alleles

AA
(A)

AB
(AB)

AO
(A)

AB
(AB)

BB
(B)

BO
(B)

AO
(A)

BO
(B)

OO
(O)

Figure 1: from http://anthro.palomar.edu/

In human blood, antigen is the protein that found on the outer membrane of red blood
cell. Antibody is also a protein that produce by antigen. Lymphocyte, type of white blood cell
that is in the part of immune system. When there are pathogen that threaten our body,

lymphocyte will produce the antibody that fit to the pathogens antigen. From this process, cells
will be able to kill the pathogen. In addition, each type of antigen of red blood cell will produce
the other type of antibody for instance antigen-A will produce antibody-B. If we inject antibodyA to people who have antigen-A, the antibody will act like a soldier that attack the invader which
is antigen-A. This will cause blood coagulation in the vessel
Since antigen-A and B determine blood type which it is on the surface of red blood cell
(RBC). Antibodies-A will not produce in the human body that have A blood type because it will
see red blood cell that has antigen-A as an invader. Then, the antibodies will do their job, kill the
invader in the body. This process of killing can be a burst or agglutinate the red cells in order to
cleanse the blood of invader protein.
Purpose:
The purpose of this experiment is to determine blood type of student. As you will see in
the result, the blood that coagulate with the antibody is representing that persons blood type.
Materials:
-

2 Microscope slides
Anti-A, -B, -AB
Markers
Lancets

Lancet Device
Ethanol
Cotton Ball
3 toothpicks

Methods:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Draw 2 circles about 1 cm diameter beside each other on each slide.

Mark each slide with: control, anti-A, anti-B, Anti-AB.
WAIT for teacher check, then puncture the tip of your finger.
Drop a single blood on each circle.
Dont put any antibody in In control.
For the circle marked as:
a. Anti-A: drop a single drop
b. Anti-B: drop a single drop
c. Anti-AB: drop a single drop
7. Mix the blood and antibody by using toothpick (change toothpick for every drop of
blood).
8. Observe the results after 10 seconds.
9. Put the results in the table below.
State: Coagulation/No coagulation
Control
Anti-A
Anti-B
Anti-AB

Results:
Blood type testing lab results

Control
Anti-A
Anti-B
Anti-AB

State: Coagulation/No coagulation

No coagulation
No coagulation
Coagulation
Coagulation

According to the results, there are coagulation in the circle that drop Anti-B and AB
which show that Tigers blood type is B. The reason why there are coagulation in AB circle, but
not in A circle because there are antigen-B in the AB circle, but there are not antigen-B in the A
circle.

Discussion:
Tiger: For my mom and dad blood type, they both are B type. The result show that Im B
type too which mean I receive one allele from each one of my parent. Moreover, there are
possibility that my mom and dad are both homozygous, both heterozygous, or one heterozygous

and one homozygous. So the difference scenarios of allele inheritance that led to Tigers blood
type are showed below.
B
B
1. Mom = i i & Dad = i i

B B
B
2. Mom = i i & Dad = i i

3. Mom =

iB i

&

B B
Dad = i i
B B
B B
4. Mom = i i & Dad = i i

Parn: My father blood type is A and my mother blood type is O. My blood type comes
out as A. By looking at both of my parents blood type, it shows that my father has a genotype of
IAi and my mother has a genotype of ii. The reason that I know my father has a genotype of I Ai
because one of my brothers has a blood type of O. If my father has a genotype of I AIA no one in
the family will have an O blood type either my bother. My mother has an O blood type, which
can only give a recessive allele (i). Therefore, I can conclude that my blood type will depend on
my father blood type, which I get IA from my father and I have a blood type of A.
However, there was something wrong during the experiment because my actually blood
type is O, approved from my immunization record. So I inferred that when I dropped my blood
to the slide, it was too little. Since there were very less amount of my blood, it may coagulated
before Parn and I dropped the antibodies to the slides. When the blood come out from human
body, it will coagulate by a soluble protein that present in the blood called fibrinogen and
prothrombin. It helps in the formation of blood clot and then fibrin occurred. Therefore, this is
my prediction why the results are indirect to my really blood type.
Blood coagulates with some antibodies but not with other antibodies because since
human ABO blood group are representing its antigen, for instance A blood type has antigen-A.
So if antigen-A meets antibody-A, the blood will coagulated. However, if antigen-A doesnt meet
antibody-A, it will not coagulated.

Conclusion:
In this experiment, we have the purpose in order to identify blood type of human. If the
blood coagulate with the antibody, it will determine that blood type. ABO blood group is the best
example of multiple alleles trait. It means that there is more than two phenotypes or a trait that
control by two or more genes. The problem of the blood transfusion is come from the antigen
and antibody in human blood. Human blood will have its own antigen that determine persons
blood type which are antigen-A and B. Antigen-A will produce antibody-B, but if antigen-A bind
with antibody-A, this will cause blood coagulation that can lead to death. As a result, Tigers
blood coagulate with antigen-B and AB which is determine that his blood type is B. However,
my actually blood type is O, so there was a problem during the lab as I mentioned in the
discussion. Therefore, our human blood type is an amazing genetic inheritance, which can cause
an extremely harmful to people if we transfuse blood to the people with the difference blood
type. This experiment show how to determine blood type of people and how dangerous it is.

Reference:
Human Blood: ABO Blood Types. (n.d). Retrieved March 10, 2015, from
http://anthro.palomar.edu/blood/ABO_system.htm
Dean, L. (n.d.). The ABO blood group. Retrieved March 10, 2015, from
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2267/
Bailey, R. (n.d.). Blood Type. Retrieved March 10, 2015, from
http://biology.about.com/od/genetics/ss/blood-type.htm
Seegers, W. H. (n.d.). Introduction: Prothrombin and Fibrinogen Related to the Blood Clotting
Mechanisms. Retrieved March 11, 2015, from http://physrev.physiology.org/content/34/4/711
Science Clarified. (n.d.). Retrieved March 12, 2015, from http://www.scienceclarified.com/AlAs/Antibody-and-Antigen.html