Abstract
ABO blood groups are routinely discussed in an undergraduate biochemistry course to illustrate the glycosylation of proteins. In the past, an ABO blood typing laboratory using the student's own blood accompanied this discussion. With our current knowledge of bloodborne pathogens, we no longer perform student laboratories that require human blood. To circumvent this problem, we have designed a simple ABO PCR-RFLP genotyping laboratory that only requires a small amount of DNA from the student. Student DNA can easily be extracted from saliva. PCR primers amplify a region of the ABO gene that is dissimilar amongst the ABO genotypes. The PCR amplimers are then digested by restriction enzymes that differentially recognize the various ABO genotypes. DNA fragments are visualized by standard agarose gel electrophoresis and the student genotype is determined by the number and size of the resulting bands. This genotyping method is more informative than standard blood typing because it allows the student to determine both of their ABO glycosyl transferase alleles.
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