BIOLOGY advanced – CAT 2 – Practical Report

Blood Typing Experiment

Introduction
The four types of blood groups; A, B, AB and 0, form from the three alleles (alternative form
of the same gene) IA, IB and i. Type IA and IB are co-dominant (in blood group AB, both
dominates instead of one dominating the other) and i is recessive, resulting in four different
phenotypes (physical expression of the trait). Most blood groups genes are co-dominant. For
example, blood groups A and B are co-dominant, resulting in type AB, however both
dominates over blood group O. The i stand for isoagglutinogen, which is another name for
antigen. Antigens are markers on a cell which can induce an immune response in the body if
the blood type is not recognized and produces antibodies. All blood group genes are
inherited on the autosomes (human cell) from the parent cell. For example an individual is
likely to inherit blood group A from their parents if the mother has A blood and father has O
blood due to A being the dominant gene over O. Blood groups are defined by the sugars
present on the surface of the cells. The cells contain antibodies to protect the specific blood
group from other blood groups due to plasma protein incompatibility, which is why rigorous
testing is done to a person before performing blood transfusions to avoid blood group
incompatibility. A 74-year-old man with O blood type was accidentally transfused with
280mL of B blood type and suffered hypotension (refer to the References for more
information). In this practical, students aim to determine the inheritance of blood groups
though the experimentation of adding antibodies to different blood groups and to observe
the reaction caused when adding antibodies to the blood groups to determine the specific
antibody present in the blood cell.

Aim
To determine the inheritance of blood groups and to observe the reaction between blood
groups when antibody A and B is added to determine which antigen is present on the blood
cells.

Hypothesis
During the experiment, blood will agglutinate (clot) through the reaction of the incompatible
protein when antibody-A is added to sample blood A, anti-B added to sample blood B and
both antibodies added to sample blood AB as the antibody is designed to eliminate the
incompatible blood type to protect the human being in real life. Blood will not react when
antibodies are added to O as the blood type does not contain any antigens, therefore will
not produce antibodies. Blood type A and B will not react when antibody-B and antibody-A
are added respectively to those blood groups due to it being present in those blood groups
already.

Materials/Method
Refer to EXPERIMENT 1.7 on PG 197 of OXFORDSCIENCE10

Results
Table showing the reactions when the antibodies are added to the different blood groups
Sample Sample Blood Sample Blood B Sample Blood
Blood 0 A AB
Antibody- Nothing Agglutinate Nothing Agglutinate
A
Antibody- Nothing Nothing Agglutinate Agglutinate
B

Observations
When antibody A was added to sample blood A and AB, the chemical reacted to and
transformed into a white substance. Same reaction recorded when antibody B was added to
B and AB. No reactions were recorded when the antibodies were added to O blood and
when antibody A and B was added to B and A blood respectively.

Discussion
1. The blood group of a person needs to be accounted for before being administering
to any blood transfusions as the wrong blood type will cause agglutination, as
discovered after research. Agglutination will occur due to the triggering of an
 immune response by the antigens within the blood cell, which will instruct the cells to
produce antibodies to help eliminate the incompatible blood group. This is
information is recoded in the Results as it clearly shows that when antibody A was
added to blood group A and AB, the chemicals reacted to form a white substance
(barium nitrate) which indicated agglutination.

2. A person with blood group A could have dominant and recessive IAi (AO) or
dominant IAI (AA) genotype. A person with blood group B can only have a genotype
of IBi (BO) or IBI (BB) which is either dominant and recessive or dominant respectively.
Blood type AB is co-dominant so therefore can only have a genotype of IAIB. Lastly,
Blood type O only has the recessive ii genotype.

A O
3. It is normally impossible for a child to
inherit O blood group from their parents who has AB
blood type. This is B AB B because both parents have IAIB
and no i phenotype to pass down. It is also
impossible for a child O A O to inherit the O type from a
mother with AB and a father with O type blood, or
vice versa. This is because the parents will pass
down a copy of each gene however, as mentioned in the introduction, the dominant
gene (IAIB) will dominate over the recessive ii (O) type gene. According to TheTech, a
rare form of cis-AB parents who have the recessive O gene may be able to have a
child with O blood. For example, if the father possesses AB/O (AB type) and the
mother possesses A/O (A type), there is a 25% chance for the child to inherit the O
blood type. However, this is rare as the amount of people with the cis-AB blood type
is less than 1% of the world’s population.

4. If the mother and father of the child had the IAi (AO) and IBi (BO) respectively, their
recessive gene would have had a 25% chance of being inherited by the child, so it is
possible to inherit O blood type from parents who have the recessive i gene.
Possessing O type blood from A and B parents doesn’t necessarily mean that the
child is adopted however this could have been plausible had one of the parent or
both parents had AB or lacked the recessive i gene.
Future siblings could have the following type of ABO genotypes and phenotypes:

Mother (AO)
Father (BO)
 This means that future siblings have a 25% chance of inheriting the four phenotypes
however there is a high chance of not inheriting O as the A and B are likely to be the
dominating phenotype.

5. This experiment was undertaken with ease and therefore no difficulties were faced at
any given time. The method and layout of the experiment should remain the way it is
to maintain the level of consistency and keep the experiment error free.

Conclusion
In this practical, the aim was to determine the inheritance of blood groups though the
experimentation of adding antibodies to different blood groups and to observe the reaction
caused when adding antibodies to the blood groups to determine the specific antibody
present in the blood cell. Prior experiment, it was hypothesised that blood will agglutinate
through the reaction of the incompatible protein when antibody-A is added to sample blood
A, anti-B added to sample blood B and both antibodies added to sample blood AB. Blood
will not react when antibodies are added to O as the blood type does not contain any
antigens, therefore will not produce antibodies. Blood type A and B will not react when
antibody-B and antibody-A are added respectively to those blood groups due to it being
present in those blood groups already. The hypothesis was supported by the result as blood
type A and B did not react when antibody-B and A were added respectively and neither
antibodies reacted with O. Blood type AB reacted with both antibody-A and B as this type of
blood is designed to clot against both antibodies. This experiment established that it is
important to account for the person’s blood type before any blood transfusion as the wrong
blood type can be fatal if administered. Also, blood types such as A and B are likely to be
dominant over the recessive type O. However, there is a 25% chance for a person to inherit
type O blood if both parents possess the recessive i allele with either dominant (IA or IB)
allele. Blood type A and B are co-dominant and therefore if one inherits both type, it will
result in the genotype (IAIB) or AB phenotype.

Further Research
Thalassemia
Thalassemia is a blood disease affecting 0.05% of live births in the world. The
disorder causes hemoglobin levels in the blood to be inadequate and therefore
making it difficult to transport oxygen throughout the body. The disorder also causes
a large amount of red blood cells to be destroyed which then leads to anemia (blood
lacking enough healthy red blood cells or haemoglobin). The two types of this
disorder exist in alpha and beta form.

Symptoms include:

Weakness
Slow growth
Fatigue
Abdominal swelling
Pale skin

Thalassemia is inherited in an autosomal recessive manner. This means that both

parents need to be carriers of the gene and copies of the HBB (gene that provides
instructions for making a protein called beta-globin) must be mutated for the
condition to display. Thalassemia is a genetical mutation and the mutation for alpha
thalassemia exists in chromosome 16 while mutation for beta thalassemia exists in
chromosome 11.

Alpha Thalassemia
Alpha Thalassemia is a mutation of the alpha globin genes on the 16th chromosome.
Person with Alpha Thalassemia does not produce enough alpha protein. The severity
increases as more chromosomes are mutated. This form of Thalassemia is more
widespread in Southern China, Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East, and Africa.

Beta Thalassemia
Beta thalassemia is a mutation of either one, or both beta globin genes on the 11th
chromosome. The level of severity depends on the number of chromosomes
mutated, just like Alpha Thalassemia. This is most common in the Mediterranean,
North Africa, West Asia and the Maldives.
Treatments
Thalassemia can be treated by blood transfusions, bone marrow transplants and
surgery (only used to correct bone abnormalities). An investigation into ‘gene
therapy’ is being undertaken which might be used in the future to treat patients with
the disease.

If two parents have Thalassemia minor, there will be a 25% chance the child will be
unaffected, a 50% chance they will be a carrier and a 25% chance their child will have
the disease

References
Inheritance of Blood Groups

https://sites.ualberta.ca/~pletendr/tm-modules/genetics/70gen-bginherit.html

ABO Incompatibility Reaction

https://www.healthline.com/health/abo-incompatibility

Case report on wrong blood transfusion:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5886938/

General Information

https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/000587.htm

https://genetics.thetech.org/ask/ask427