Tonight someone asked me if you can determine your blood type based on that of your spouse & kids, if you know all of theirs, but not your own. If someone reading this can answer better than my attempt, please correct me or add to this post!
I dusted off an old biology text book & looked for the section on blood type genetics. (Campbell, Neil A. Biology. 4th Edition. Riverside, CA; The Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company, Inc. 1996.)
Basically, there are 4 blood types: O, A, B, & AB. Blood type is determined the absence or presence of a blood protein on your blood cell. Which protein you do or do not have is controlled by multiple alleles of one gene. There are 3 alleles: i (recessive), Ia (co-dominant with Ib) & Ib (co-dominant with Ia). You get one from each parent, & the combination of the two alleles is your genotype.
Phenotype (exhibited trait) --> Genotype (genetic makeup)
Blood type O can have only one combination: ii
Blood type A can be Ia-Ia or Ia-i
Blood type B can be Ib-Ib or Ib-i
Blood type AB can only be IaIb.
Here is a punnett square/table I made that can help you see possible blood types based on parents' blood types. To keep it simple, I did not include Rh+/- or other factors.
I think that it would be much easier to get a blood test than it would be to deduce your blood type via this table! If you have ever given blood, the site you donated at should have your type on record.
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I dusted off an old biology text book & looked for the section on blood type genetics. (Campbell, Neil A. Biology. 4th Edition. Riverside, CA; The Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company, Inc. 1996.)
Basically, there are 4 blood types: O, A, B, & AB. Blood type is determined the absence or presence of a blood protein on your blood cell. Which protein you do or do not have is controlled by multiple alleles of one gene. There are 3 alleles: i (recessive), Ia (co-dominant with Ib) & Ib (co-dominant with Ia). You get one from each parent, & the combination of the two alleles is your genotype.
Phenotype (exhibited trait) --> Genotype (genetic makeup)
Blood type O can have only one combination: ii
Blood type A can be Ia-Ia or Ia-i
Blood type B can be Ib-Ib or Ib-i
Blood type AB can only be IaIb.
Here is a punnett square/table I made that can help you see possible blood types based on parents' blood types. To keep it simple, I did not include Rh+/- or other factors.
- For much more information about blood type, see Wikipedia's article on blood type.
- To learn more about Eat Right For Your Type, see the link posted on my page (left column) or click here.
- If you want a kit, here's one place to order an at-home blood type kit, or type "at home blood type test kit" into your favorite browser & see what pops up.
