Rh Gene Frequencies in Britain

Abstract

THE genetics of the Rhesus factor have turned out to be so complex and our understanding of it has advanced so rapidly that it is difficult for many to arrive at a clear picture of the situation now substantially established. The notation has been frequently changed, and we feel that only a notation which designates unambiguously the antibodies, the genes or gene-complexes, and the antigens with which these antibodies react can avoid widespread confusion. In Table 1 we set out such a notation suggested by Fisher¹ which has been in use in this laboratory for about eighteen months. Six of the gene designations here adopted are due to Wiener², but for the antibodies his notation seems arbitrary. While Cappell's names³ such as anti-C, anti-D, anti-E and anti-c are unambiguous, Wiener's do not seem satisfactory since, for example, the 85 per cent reacting serum is called anti-Rh₀, whereas besides Rh₀ it reacts with the genes Rh_l, Rh₂ and Rh_z. In the designations here used, on the contrary, ? or anti-D indicates that the serum reacts with an elementary antigen D present equally in the gene complexes of Rh₀, Rh_l, Rh₂ and Rh_Z as shown in Table 1. (For the remainder of this communication the h will be omitted from Rh.)