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Blood alleles are the genes that determine what kinds of proteins will be present on the surface of red blood cells, which are called antigens. These alleles determine blood type - A, B, AB or O. There are actually only two proteins that are present in human blood, A and B. Type O blood is an absence of either A or B proteins.

Therefore, blood type is determined by the genes you inherit from your parents. All humans carry two alleles. For example, one person may have one allele for A type blood and another allele for no protein (O type). This person will have type A blood. Another person may have one allele for B type blood and another allele for no protein (type O blood) and would be classified as having type B blood. If these two people were to have children together, they would be able to produce children with all four blood types. This is because each parent would contribute one allele to the child.

If the child received the A from parent 1 and the B from parent 2, the child would have type AB blood - both the A and the B proteins present on the child's red blood cells. If the child received the A from parent 1 and the O from parent 2, the child would have type A blood. If the child received the O from parent 1 and the B from parent 2, the child would have type B blood. If the child received the O from parent 1 and the O from parent 2, the child would have type O blood - no proteins present on the child's red blood cells.

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14y ago

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