Molecular characterisation of Duffy (FY) red blood cell variants among voluntary blood donors at the National Blood Grouping Testing Laboratory, Kenya

A variant is an alternative nucleotide located at a specific region of a gene. 48 genes encode for human red cell blood group systems. Variants within these genes encode for alleles, which can be highly polymorphic. The blood group gene loci jointly display all types of inherited variants to include single nucleotide variants insertions/deletions and structural variants. In Africa, there is limited information on the red cell variants. The aim of the study was to establish the frequency Duffy red blood cell variants among the donors in Kenya. The study employed next sequencing method, descriptive statistics and results presented in form of a table. The findings show that Duffy system has three variants to include; homozygous for FY*Null GATA regulatory box variant FY*02N.01/FY*02N.01 or Fy(a–b–) found in 93.52% (101/108), while FY*01/FY*02 and FY c.–67T>C predicted Fy(a+b–) or Fy(a–b+) at 3.70% (4/108) while FY*02/FY*02N.01 predicted Fy(a–b+) at 2.78% (3/108). This study recommends an extended research involving large sample size and introduction of extended phenotyping in the identification of FY antigens population. Key words: Duffy, variant, allele, FY*A, FY*B, molecular, genome, gene.