Molecular background of D‐negative phenotype in the Tunisian population

Abstract

This study showed that the Tunisian population gets closer to Caucasians, given that the RHD gene deletion is the most prevalent cause of D-negative phenotype, but it is slightly different by the presence of the RHDψ pseudogene which was found with a very low frequency compared with that described in the African population. Nevertheless, the relative occurrence of weak D variants among studied serologically D-negative samples make necessary the adaptation of RHD genotyping strategy to the spectrum of prevalent alleles.