The 50th In Silico Megabank Research Seminar will be held on Friday, September 26.
This Time, we will be welcoming Dr. Kitano, Ibaraki University as our lecturer, and he will be speaking on “Evolution of Blood Group Genes”.

・Date/Time: September 26(Fri.) 17:00‐18:30
・Venue : Small Conference Room 2(3rd Floor), Tohoku Medical Megabank Building
・Title: Evolution of Blood Group Genes
・Lecturer: Takashi Kitano (Department of Biomolecular Functional Engineering,
College of Engineering, Ibaraki University)

＊This lecture is transferable as a class in the medical research-related lecture course.

・Abstract :. Small variance in the structure of erythrocyte cell surface is categorized into groups based on the antigen-antibody reaction, and this is what we call blood groups. The antigens of ABO type blood groups are sugar chains. The base is the sugar chain of type O. The sugar chain comprised of the base with a terminal N-Acetylgalactosamine is type A and with a terminal galactose is type B. ABO type blood group genes are ones that code glycosyltransferase to link those terminal sugars. The difference in 2 amino acids above exon 7 creates the difference in the sugar attached, which in turn forms the sugar chain of type A or type B. Also, the frame shift due to single base deletion above exon 6 causes inhibition of the production of functional glycosyltransfrase, and as a consequence neither terminal sugar is attached. This is the sugar chain of type O. On the other hand, RH blood group genes are the ones that code proteins for transporters with 12 transmembrane domains, and the different types of the amino acids placed outer-membrane of these proteins are categorized in this group.
In this lecture, molecular basis and evolution of ABO and RH blood group genes are introduced.

・Organizer : Yosuke Kawai, Masao Nagasaki