Ancestry runs deeper than blood: The evolutionary history of ABO points to cryptic variation of functional importance

摘要: The ABO histo-blood group, first discovered over a century ago, is found not only in humans but also many other primate species, with the same genetic variants maintained for at least 20 million years. Polymorphisms have been associated susceptibility to large number of human diseases, from gastric cancers immune or artery adaptive phenotypes which polymorphism contributes remain unclear. We suggest that variation has by frequency-dependent fluctuating selection pressures, potentially arising co-evolution gut pathogens. further hypothesize group labels A, B, AB, and O do offer full description natural selection, implying there are unrecognized, functionally important, antigens beyond primates.