Lewis (FUT3) genotypes in Taiwanese, Thai, and Filipino populations

The Lewis (Le) blood type comprises two major antigens, Le(a) and Le(b), wh ich are encoded by alpha (1,2)-fucosyltransferase (FUT2) and alpha (1,3/1,4 )-fucosyltransferase (FUT3), In this study, we analyzed the mutations of FU T3 in Taiwanese, Thai, and Filipino populations and correlated these with s erologic phenotypes. One hundred and thirty-seven Taiwanese, 71 Thai, and 1 25 Filipino were studied unselectively. The frequency of the normal and fou r other mutant alleles for Taiwanese, Thai, and Filipino, respectively, wer e as follows: 187/274 (68.2%), 87/142 (61.3%), and 160/250 (64.0%) were wil d type (Le); 14/274 (5.1%), 1/142 (0.7%), and 1/250 (0.4%) were a T202C/C31 4T mutation (le(202,314)); 35/274 (12.8%), 15/142 (10.6%), and 22/250 (8.8% ) had the G508A mutation (le(508)); and 38/274 (13.9%), 39/142 (27.4%), and 67/250 (26.8%) carried the T1067A mutation (le(1067)). The le(445) and le( 1007) were not detected in this study. Our result provided the first geneti c data of the FUT3 gene in these three populations, and the frequency distr ibution of mutant alleles among Taiwanese, Thai, and Filipinos demonstrates a significant difference (P<0.001). In our study, the le(202,314) mutation had considerable frequency in the Taiwanese, but the le(1067) mutation had a higher frequency in Thai and Filipinos.