LAUSR

The ABO system is the most important blood system in transfusion medicine, which contains four major ABO phenotypes: A, B, O, and AB. Some variants in the ABO gene may lead to weak A or B subgroups (e.g., A3, Am, Ax, Ael, B3, Bm, Bx, Bel), which are usually recognized by apparent discrepancies between the forward and reverse results. Recently, we identified a novel missense variant in the exon 7 of the ABO gene in a Tibetan woman with the Bel phenotype. Here, we report the identification of the novel Bel allele.