Hum Genet (2008) 124:123–135
DOI 10.1007/s00439-008-0530-8

ORIGINAL INVESTIGATION

Evolutionary dynamics of the human ABO geneFrancesc Calafell · Francis Roubinet ·Anna Ramírez-Soriano · Naruya Saitou ·Jaume Bertranpetit · Antoine Blancher

Received: 27 May 2008 / Accepted: 3 July 2008 / Published online: 16 July 2008
© Springer-Verlag 2008

Abstract The ABO polymorphism has long been suspected to be under balancing selection. To explore this possibility, we analyzed two datasets: (1) a set of 94 23-Kb
sequences in European- and African-Americans producedby the Seattle SNPs project, and (2) a set of 814 2-Kb
sequences in O alleles from seven worldwide populations.
A phylogenetic analysis of the Seattle sequences showed acomplex pattern in which the action of recombination andgene conversion are evident, and in which four main lineages could be individuated. The sequence patterns could

Electronic supplementary material The online version of thisarticle (doi:10.1007/s00439-008-0530-8) contains supplementarymaterial, which is available to authorized users.
F. Calafell (&) · A. Ramírez-Soriano · J. Bertranpetit
Unitat de Biologia Evolutiva,
Departament de Ciències Experimentals i de la Salut,
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Doctor Aiguader,
80, 08003 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spaine-mail: francesc.calafell@upf.edu
F. Calafell · J. Bertranpetit
CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP),
Barcelona, Spain
F. Roubinet
Etablissement Français du sang Centre Atlantique,BP 52009, Tours, 37020 Cedex 1, France
F. Roubinet · A. Blancher
Laboratoire d’Immunogénétique Moléculaire,
Faculté de Médecine Purpan,
Université Paul Sabatier Toulouse III,
Bâtiment A2, 31062 Toulouse Cedex 4, France
N. Saitou
Division of Population Genetics,
National Institute of Genetics, Mishima 411-8540, Japanbe linked to the expected blood group phenotype; in particular, the main mutation giving rise to the null O allele islikely to have appeared at least three times in human evolution, giving rise to allele lineages O02, O01, and O09.
However, the genealogy changes along the gene and variations of both numbers of branches and of their time depth
were observed, which could result from a combined actionof recombination and selection. Several neutrality tests
clearly demonstrated deviations compatible with balancing
selection, peaking at several locations along the gene. The
time depth of the genealogy was also incompatible withneutral evolution, particularly in the region from exons 6 to
7, which codes for most of the catalytic domain.

Introduction
The ABO system was discovered by Karl Landsteiner(1901) and consists of three main alleles: two codominant A
and B and one silent and recessive allele called O. The A
and B alleles code for glycosyltransferases that add aN-acetyl galactosamine or a galactose, respectively, to various
substrates generically referred to as H substance. These
products result in A or B blood group speciWc antigens. The
combinations of the three main alleles result in four major
phenotypes, namely A, B, AB, and O, which are characterized by the presence (or absence) of A and B antigens on
the surface of red cells and the presence in the serum of natural antibodies against the antigen absent at the surface of
red blood cells. Indeed, because of the natural tolerance, thenatural antibodies against the antigens possessed by theindividual are not normally observed in physiological conditions in humans. Beside its utmost importance in medicine, the ABO system was also the Wrst human genetic
system to be applied to human population studies, which

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revealed the variation in A, B and O allele frequencies
among populations (Mourant 1954).
The discovery of the ABO gene at the molecular level
allowed a reWnement of polymorphism knowledge(Yamamoto et al. 1990a, b, 1995). Particularly, it was evidenced that each of the three main antigenic classes (A, B,
and O) comprises numerous alleles that can be deWned bytheir coding and non-coding sequences. Currently, over 70
alleles have been deWned at the molecular level (see Olsson
and Chester 2001; Yamamoto 2004; Yip 2002), and http://
www.bioc.aecom.yu.edu/bgmut/abo.htm for reviews), andABO seems to be one of the most polymorphic genes inhumans. The main A and B alleles (namely, A101 andB101) diVer at four amino acid residues: A101 carries 176
Arg, 235 Gly, 266 Leu, 268 Gly, while B101 carries 176
Gly, 235 Ser, 266 Met, 268 Ala. In vitro expression studies,
cisAB alleles (i.e., alleles coding for an enzyme that cantransfer both N-acetyl galactosamine and galactose), and B
sequences in other primates have shown that the determining amino acid residues are 266 and 268. The two functional A and B allele classes were revealed to containnumerous sequence variants. For example, the A201 allele
responsible for a serologically detectable A2 phenotype
with a 20- to 50-fold reduction in A activity, displays whencompared to the A101 allele an insertion at genomic position 1,061, which results in a frameshift adding 21 additional amino acid residues to the protein.
The silent allele O is also greatly heterogeneous whenstudied at the gene sequence level. The most frequent
human O alleles are O01 and O02, which have been foundat high frequencies in all populations studied so far. They
diVer in exons 6 and 7 by nine nucleotide substitutions(Olsson and Chester 1996b; Yamamoto et al. 1990a), andby an additional 14 positions in intron 6 (Roubinet et al.
2004, 2001) but share a point deletion of a G at position
261 in exon 6. This deletion, referred to as 261 as per thenumbering in Yamamoto (2000), induces a frameshift andcreates a premature stop codon (nucleotides 352–354),
resulting in a truncated (117 amino acids) protein deprivedof any glycosyltransferase activity (Yamamoto et al.
1990a). Numerous variants of O01 and O02 alleles havebeen described. They diVer from O01 or O02 by a few
point mutations (Chester and Olsson 2001; Ogasawara
et al. 1996a, b, 2001; Olsson and Chester 2001; Olsson
et al. 1997, 1998; Roubinet et al. 2004, 2001; Yamamoto
2000; Yip 2000), or result from inter-allelic exchanges
between them or with A or B alleles [for a general review
see (Yip 2002)]. Rarer alleles such as O03 (Grunnet et al.
1994; Yamamoto et al. 1993), O08 (Olsson and Chester
1996a); O4 and O5 (Olsson and Chester 2001); O301 andO302 (Ogasawara et al. 2001) carry diVerent inactivating
mutations. Previous studies of the exon 6 to exon 7 region
had showed three main lineages: A101/O01, B101, and O02

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Hum Genet (2008) 124:123–135(Roubinet et al. 2004). Even in such a relative short region(1.8 Kb), the divergence between the main lineages allowed
a precise delineation of the putatively recombinantsequences. Additional sequence of exons 1–5 does not contribute much to reWning that knowledge, given that theseexons add up to only 239 bp. Then, the review by Yip(2002), based mostly on coding sequence, showed mostly
this three-lineage genealogy. Sequencing the whole gene(bar the huge intron 1) in selected alleles rather than in random population samples, Seltsam et al. (2003) deWned a
Wve-lineage genealogy, in which A101 was separated from
O01, and O03 was revealed as a quite distinct lineage; theyalso demonstrated that the upstream sequence of B101 wasvery similar to that of A101, and that B101 was, in fact, arecombining allele, retaining only its singularity downstream of exon 5.
The adaptive value of the ABO polymorphism has long
been studied. However, until the discovery of the ABO gene
(Yamamoto et al. 1990a), the only feasible approach was toexplore the association between ABO phenotypes and various diseases as reviewed in the classic book by Mourant
et al. (1978). Special attention was devoted to infectious
disease because of the widespread expression of A and B
antigens by various infectious agents and also the use ofhuman A and B substances as receptors by a number of
infectious agents. As reviewed by Gagneux and Varki(1999), the ABO polymorphism can prevent that the species
carrying it be endangered by a pathogen using a given carbohydrate as receptor. On the other hand, the ABO polymorphism leads to a polymorphic production of anti-A andanti-B natural antibodies, which potentially protect individuals from the various and numerous infectious agents
expressing A and B motifs. From these observations, one
can conclude that the silent allele O, although being a nullallele could have had a selective value because, in homozygosity, it implies that natural anti-A and anti-B antibodies
are produced. Moreover, the O homozygotes are potentially
protected from infectious agents that use the A and B substances as receptors, but they are more sensitive to Helicobacter pylori (Borén et al. 1993) and are particularly
exposed to severe forms of cholera (Swerdlow et al. 1994).
The 261 deletion has been shown to be protective against
severe malaria (Fry et al. 2007), probably because the O
phenotype reduces red-cell rosetting, a virulence factor(Rowe et al. 2007); for a general review of ABO andmalaria, see Cserti and Dzik (2007). Other examples ofpotentially selective agents are Campylobacter jejuni(Ruiz-Palacios et al. 2003) and the Norwalk virus (Lindesmith et al. 2003; Marionneau et al. 2002). In fact, thepotential value of the ABO polymorphism should be understood in the context on its complex interaction with otherpolymorphic genes encoding fucosyltranferases FUT1,
FUT2, and FUT3; that is, the genes previously known as H,

Hum Genet (2008) 124:123–135

Se, and Le (Marionneau et al. 2001). Given this complex
pattern of putative selective agents, the direct demonstration of the action of selection is bound to be elusive. However, even if the actual mechanisms of selection cannot be
pinpointed, the footprint of selection on the moleculardiversity of ABO can be sought for, given the variety oftests available to assay for departures from neutral evolution. Saitou and Yamamoto (1997), using cDNA sequences,
had already noted the extreme deep coalescence times
among human ABO alleles, suggesting balancing selection.
Stajich and Hahn (2005) found that, in a survey of public
resequencing data for 151 genes in two North American
populations, ABO sequence structure showed clear signs ofbalancing selection, a Wnding disputed by Bubb et al.
(2006).
We have explored the phylogenetic structure of the main
ABO lineages and their nucleotide diversity patterns for
departures of neutrality. For that, we have used two data
sets: the resequencing of the complete ABO gene by the
Seattle SNPs project (Akey et al. 2004) in a random sample
of 24 African-Americans and 23 European-Americans, andthe cloning and resequencing of 1,875 bp of 814 O chromosomes from autochthonous individuals from Africa,
Europe, Asia, and the Americas (Roubinet et al. 2004).
Note that the total size of sequence produced in each set issimilar (»2.2 and »1.5 Mb, respectively), and that they
complement each other in that Seattle SNPs has a limited
geographical sampling and the data set by Roubinet et al.
(2004) covers a subset of the phylogeny. The joint analysisof both data sets has allowed us to discover new lineages in
ABO, to reWne the hypotheses concerning the origin of themain alleles and the role of selection and recombination in
those origins, and to provide additional evidence for theextensive action of balancing selection on ABO.

Methods
Datasets
Two datasets were analyzed: the ABO sequences producedby the Seattle SNPs project and the O allele sequences in
Roubinet et al. (2004). The Seattle SNP Project aims to
resequence a large number of genes involved in the inXammatory response in samples of European- and AfricanAmericans (Akey et al. 2004); as of June 2008, sequence
data for 320 genes were publicly available at http://pga.gs.washington.edu. The complete ABO gene (including
2.4 Kb upstream and 1.7 Kb downstream) had been resequenced in 24 African-Americans and 23 European-Americans; all individuals were unrelated to each other. The
haplotypes posted at the Seattle SNP website had been statistically estimated from segregating sites with frequencies

125>0.05. Since all variation is needed for many neutrality
tests (Kreitman and Di Rienzo 2004; Soldevila et al. 2005),
we reconstructed haplotypes using all 214 segregating sites
by means of the Bayesian algorithm implemented in the
PHASE 2.1 software (Stephens and Scheet 2005; Stephenset al. 2001) available at http://www.stat.washington.edu/
stephens/software.html. Each haplotype was attributed to amain allele (A, B, O) and lineage (such as A101, A201,
O01, O02, and others) using the relevant positions in exon
6, intron 6, and exon 7 as deWned by Roubinet et al. (2004)
and Seltsam et al. (2003), and reviewed by Yip (2002). A
pattern in which a haplotype departed from the consensus
sequence in its lineage for at least three consecutive informative positions was taken as indicative of a recombinationor gene conversion event.
Roubinet et al. (2004) determined the sequence of
1,875 bp of the ABO gene, comprising exon 6, intron 6, andexon 7, in 814 O chromosomes from seven human populations (Akan from the Ivory Coast, Berbers from Morocco,
Basques from France and Spain, Han Chinese from Putienand Fujiou, and Cayapas and Aymaras from Bolivia). Haplotype phase was resolved molecularly for each individualby sequencing cloned ampliWcation products.
Neutrality tests
Basic descriptive statistics was performed with DNAsp 4.10
(Rozas et al. 2003), available at http://www.ub.es/dnasp.
Deviation from neutrality was tested by means of Tajima’s
D (Tajima 1989) and Fu and Li’s F test (Fu and Li 1993)
with a chimpanzee A sequence as an outgroup (The Chimpanzee Sequencing and Analysis Consortium 2005). Fu andLi’s F test was chosen over the D test by the same authors
because it showed slightly more statistical power underrecombination (Ramírez-Soriano et al. 2008). The signiWcance of both tests was estimated with a coalescent simulation with recombination, conditional on the number ofsegregating sites. The recombination rate at the ABO gene
was estimated with data from Kong et al. (2002). According
to their map, D9S754 is located »200 Kb downstream from
ABO and the recombination at that locus was estimated at
1.07 cM/Mb; thus, total recombination rates can be estimated as 0.025 cM for the Seattle SNP data set (23,759 bp)
and as 2.01 £ 10¡3 cM for the Roubinet dataset (1,875 bp),
and the R = 4Ner parameter at 10.26 and 0.80, respectively,
if the eVective population size of humans is taken as 10,000(Takahata et al. 1995). Ten thousand coalescent simulations
were run for each test with DnaSP 4.10, and Tajima’s D and
Fu and Li’s F values were obtained in each simulation
under the neutral model. The one-tailed signiWcance of theactual tests was given as the empirical fraction of simulations yielding more extreme test values than those observed.
Tajima’s D and Fu and Li’s F were also computed in sliding

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windows along the sequence. The statistical signiWcance ofpeaks in the sliding windows graph was tested also by acoalescent approach, using the scan-ms program (Ardell2004) with 10,000 iterations.
Phylogenetic trees and dating
Maximum likelihood (ML) trees were produced with the
PHYML v.2.4.4 software (Guindon and Gascuel 2003)
using a general time reversible (GTR) model with a discrete-gamma distribution of substitution rates. Support for
branches was estimated from 1,000 bootstrap iterations.
Trees were also generated with a Bayesian method as
implemented in MrBayes v. 3.1 (Huelsenbeck and Ronquist
2001; Ronquist and Huelsenbeck 2003), also with a GTR
model with a discrete-gamma distribution of substitution
rates. Other parameters were left in their default states assuggested in the software manual, except for generations,which were increased to one million.
Before a dating method was applied, we tested for theconstancy of the molecular clock. We used the DAMBE 4.5
software (Xia and Xie 2001) to perform relative rate tests
between pairs of human sequences, using the chimpanzee
as an outgroup. We tested the molecular clock in all possible pairs of sequence lineages; since we had a choice ofsequences in each lineage, we compared the sequence closest to the root in one lineage against the sequence farthestfrom the root in the other lineage. None of the tests weresigniWcant at the  = 0.05 level.
The average number of mutations accumulated from anancestral sequence () is related to time with  = t, where is mutation rate (Bertranpetit and Calafell 1996; Morral
et al. 1994; Saillard et al. 2000). We have used this methodwith two diVerent aims: (1) to obtain an age estimate for theoverall tree of ABO sequences; (2) to estimate the timeneeded to accumulate all mutations observed in a lineage
from the root of the overall tree, since the distance from thetree root to its tips varies widely from lineage to lineage. A
broad mutation rate was estimated by considering the
genomewide divergence value between humans and chimpanzees (Ki = 0.0127) (The Chimpanzee Sequencing andAnalysis Consortium 2005). Considering that this divergence has accumulated over »6 million years, a substitution
rate of 1.058 £ 10¡9 per nucleotide per year was estimated.

Hum Genet (2008) 124:123–135

the ABO gene as well as 2.4 Kb upstream and 1.7 Kb downstream. Three fragments were not sequenced: one of »1 Kb
in intron 1, and two of »200 bp each, both in the 3⬘ end of
the gene. Sixty-one diVerent haplotypes were found, andsummary statistics of variation can be found in Table 1. As
expected given the genomewide trend, African-Americans
show greater variability than European-Americans, both at
the haplotype and the nucleotide levels. For the latter, African-Americans are more diverse than European-Americans
in 258 out of the 319 genes (81%) sequenced by the Seattle
SNPs project (May 2008). ABO is the most polymorphic
gene sequenced so far by the Seattle SNPs project, almost
Wve standard deviations above the mean nucleotide diversity (8.6 £ 10¡4). Saitou and Yamamoto (1997), using
cDNA sequences, had already noted the extreme diVerentiation among human ABO alleles.
The extent of polymorphism along the ABO gene isshown in Fig. 1. Three highly polymorphic regions appear
to exist in intron 1, intron 3, and from intron 4 to exon 7.
This pattern is found in both African-Americans and European-Americans (Spearman’s  = 0.941), though theformer show a much higher peak at the intron 4 to exon 7
region, probably due to the absence of B alleles in the European American sample.
Figure 2 shows the haplotypes that can be reconstructedfrom the Seattle SNPs ABO sequences. The two closest
haplotypes to the chimpanzee sequence carried an intron 6
sequence that was very close to that of allele O47 (“Bloodgroup antigen gene mutation database”; http://www.bioc.
aecom.yu.edu/bgmut/index.php), also called Ovartlse20 inRoubinet et al. (2004) (see the Appendix for a complete listof correspondences between the two nomenclature systems). This ancestral-like sequence extended only up to the
middle of intron 4, where it was replaced by a sequence
very similar to that of the consensus O02 (see below): in»15 Kb, the two O47 haplotypes showed only four Wxed
substitutions from O02; however, in the 3⬘-most 3.3 Kb,
these two haplotypes accumulate six diVerences from O02.
In summary, these two haplotypes could be ancient lineages
in which a central section has been replaced by recombination from O02 (or, in case of haplotype H17, from A201). In
Fig. 2, the O47- speciWc sequence is marked in magenta, as
opposed to the brown O02 (see the online version for colour).
Table 1 Summary statistics of Seattle SNPs ABO sequences

Results
Evolutionary analysis of the ABO sequences in Seattle
SNPs
Sequences for 24 African-Americans and 23 Americans ofEuropean descent were determined for 23,759 bp covering

123

Population

N

S

k

H

African-Americans

48

207

39

0.986729

European-Americans

46

161

28

0.9623

26

Total

94

214

61

0.983828

N number of chromosomes, S number of segregating sites, k number ofdiVerent haplotypes, H haplotype diversity,  nucleotide diversity(£10¡4)

Hum Genet (2008) 124:123–135
Fig. 1 Nucleotide diversity
along the ABO gene. Diversity
is plotted for windows of
1,000 bp moved 25 bp. On the
X-axis, from top to bottom: i) a
cartoon of the ABO gene, withexons numbered and regions notsequenced by Seattle SNPs as
striped boxes; ii) a physicalscale; iii) position of the 214
segregating sites (multiples of
10 only)

127

0.006

0.004

0.002

0

2

1

5

0
20 30

15

10
40

O02 lineages (in brown) are easily recognizable fromtheir exon 6 to exon 7 sequences (Roubinet et al. 2004;
Seltsam et al. 2003). Although they share with O01, the261 deletion that inactivates the ABO gene, both lineages
are very divergent, with an average 100.4 substitutions(0.00423 per nucleotide) between O02 and O01 sequences.
This makes it unlikely that O01 and O02 share 261
because of a recent common origin of both lineages; twoalternate possibilities are (1) that O01 and O02 have anancient common origin, diverged a long time ago andretained 261 probably because of selection, or (2) that
O01 and O02 are two independent lineages that convergedto 261 by parallel mutation or gene conversion. Under the
Wrst hypothesis, it is expected that divergence were minimalaround 261 and would increase outwards. However, thisis not the case, since divergence between O01 and O02
around 261 is over twice the mean (Fig. 3), and the
expected pattern of divergence increasing away from 261
was not found.
O01 lineages are indicated in blue in Fig. 2. Their O01
sequence was described as quite similar to that of A101, but,overall, O01 is rather divergent from A101 (Dxy = 0.0244).
Three groups of haplotypes with diVerent phenotypes(namely, A101, A201, and O09) carried similar sequences
and formed a deWnite cluster (in green in Figure 2). Finally,
haplotypes corresponding to B alleles (characterized by theL266 M and G268A amino acid changes) carried a distinctive sequence only downstream from exon 6, whereas
upstream they carried a sequence related to A201. From thestart of the Seattle SNP sequence to position 20,150 (in the
middle of exon 6), B101 and A201 haplotypes had
Dxy = 0.00055 and four Wxed diVerences, whereas fromposition 20,151 to the end of the sequence (at position
23,759), divergence was an order of magnitude larger(Dxy = 0.00737) and the number of Wxed diVerences grewto 26. A B101 haplotype (H60) carried an O02 upstream
sequence instead. These results are in accordance with theWndings of Seltsam et al. (2003) for introns 2–4.

50 60

70

4

80

90

100

5 6

7

25 Kb

20
110120 130 140

150

200
190
180
170
160

10

3

210

SNP

Two features of the ABO sequence genealogy emerge
from Fig. 2: the presence of haplotypes of mixed origin(given the high polymorphism of ABO, such events can bedetected with more precision), and the presence of a varying number of lineages along the sequence. Actually, thechanges in tree topology along a sequence have been proposed as the means to detect recombination (Kosakovsky
Pond et al. 2006). We constructed an ML tree with all presumably non-recombined sequences and rooted it with thechimpanzee sequence (Fig. 4); a Bayesianly-inferred tree
showed the same topology. Three main lineages can be
individuated: O02, O01, and A101-A201-O09. Note,though, that the divergent B101 and O47 lineages were notincluded in the tree since they are apparently recombinantsequences. Moreover, the number of main lineages varies
along the sequence, as revealed by a summary visualinspection of Fig. 2. We chose to analyze this phenomenonby splitting the original sequence length in three segments
deWned as to minimize recombinant sequences within eachsegment, and building trees in each segment. We placed thesegment limits at positions 6,000 (that is, between SNPs 45
and 46), and 20,124 that is, between SNPs 159 and 160.
Taking the Wrst 6 Kb (from the beginning of the sequence
to 3.5 Kb into intron 1), three lineages can be discerned:
O02, O01, and the rest of the haplotypes, now with only
A101 haplotypes clustering (Fig. 5a). In a central section,from positions 6,000 to 20,124 (that is, from intron 1 to theend of intron 5), O02 and O01 are distinct, and subdivisions
in the B101-A101-A201-O09 lineage are very shallow(Fig. 5b). Finally, from 20,124 to the 3⬘ end of the sequence(comprising the functionally relevant sites in exons 6 and7), the tree obtained (Fig. 5c) is deeper (nucleotide diversityis  = 0.00421 vs.  = 0.00226 and  = 0.00251 in the 5⬘
and central sections) and lineages are more markedly diVerentiated: O47 is clearly diVerent from O02, and B101 becomesdetached from a cluster now containing O01 as well as
A101, A201, and O09. Thus, the gene region containing thevariation that is involved in the functional diVerence

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O47
H18 -.....TG-..T.C......C..........CATC.AT.G.T....AT..G........C...AT.C..GC..C.A..C...G...-T...A.G.C-AT.....C.....C.T..T......TT....C.....C...TA...GT........-.....-....C-.A.GG.......G.A...GA............................A
H2 -......G-..T..G..C..C..........CATC.AT.G.T...AAT..G........C...AT.C..GC..C.A..C...G...-T...A.G.C-AT.....C.....C.T..T......TT....C.....C...TA...GT........-.....-....C-.A.GG.......G.A...GA............................2A
H17 -..A..T.-....C.......C..CG.G.AT....A..C.A..A....CA..T.TA....CGT..T..C..A..G.GA.......A-.......CC-A.......GA..T.T..............TAC.CTCGCG-.......T........-.....-....C-.A.GG.......G.A...GA............................AO02
H29 ........-TT...GT...............CATC.AT...T...AAT..G.....A..C...AT.C..GC.GC.A..C...G.A.-....A.G.C-A......C...G.C.T..T...T..TT....C.........TA...G..T.....T.T..AA-...AC-.ATG....C..AG.....GA....A.A..T..A...G.-..-......A7E
H21 ........-TT...GT...............CATC.AT...T...AAT..G.....A..C...AT.C..GC..C.A..C...G.A.-....A.G.C-A......C.....C.T..T...T..TT....C.........TA...G..T.....T.T..AA-...AC...TG....C..AG.....GA....A....T..A...G.-..-......A
H30 ........-TT...GT...............CATC.AT...T...AAT..G.....A..C...AT.C..GC.GC.A..C...G.A.-....A.G.C-A......C.....C.T.AT.G.T..TT....C.........TA...G..T.....T.T..AA-...AC-.ATG....C..AG.....GA....A.A..T..A...G.-..-......A
H61 ........-TT...GT...............CATC.AT...T...AAT..G.....A..C...AT.C..GC.GC.A..C...G.A.-....A.G.C-A......C...G.C.T..T...T..TT....C.........TA...G..T.....T.T..AA-...AC-.ATG....C..AG.....GA....A.A..T..A...G....-......A
H34 ........-TT...GT...............CATC.AT...T...AAT..G.....A..C...AT.C..GC.GC.A..C...G.A.-....A.G.C-A......C...G.C.T..T...T..TT....C........ATA...G..T.......T..AA-...AC-.ATG....C..AG.....GA...TA.A..T..A...G.--.-......1A
1E
H45 ........-TT...GT...............CATC.AT...T...AAT..G.....A..C...AT.C..GC.GC.A..C...G.A.-....A.G.C-A......C...G.C.T..T...T..TT....C.........TA...G..T.....T.T..AA-...AC-.ATG....C..AG.....GA....A.A..T..A...G.-..-.....CE
H27 -..A..T.-.....GT..T............CATC.AT...T...AAT..G.....A..C...AT.C..GC.GC.A..C...G.A.-....A.G.C-A......C.....C.T.AT.G.T..TT....C.........TA...G..T.....T.T..AA-...AC-.ATG....C..AG.....GA....A.A..T..A...G.-..-......A
H28 -..A..T.-TT...GT...............CATC.AT...T...AAT..G.....A..C...AT.C..GC..C.A..C...G.A.-....A.G.C-A......C.....C.T..T...T..TT....C.........TA...G..T.....T.T..AA-...AC...TG....C..AG.....GA....A....T..A...G.-..-......A
H42 ........-TT...GT...............CATC.AT...T...AAT..G.......T....AT..A.GC.GC.A..C...G..A-....A.G.C-A......C...G.C.T..T...T..TT....C.........TA...G..T.......T..AA-...AC-.ATG....C..AG.....GA...TA.A..T..A...G.-..-......2E
H38 ........-TT...GT..T..C.........CATC.AT...T...AAT..G.......T....AT..A.GC..C.A..C...GC.A-....A.G.C-A......C.....C.T.AT.G.T..TT....C.........TA...G..T.....T.T..AA-...AC-.ATG....C..AG.....GA....A.A..T..A...G.-..-......AO01
H49 -A......-.....G....................A..C.A.T.A..T..G.......T....AT..A.GC..C.A.........A-..G..AG.C-....ICA..A..T..TA..........T.TAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-C.-.A...-A....-.......A.....A.A.A..................GA..T-TC..AC4E
H50 -A......-...A.G....................A..C.A.T.A..T..G.......T....AT..A.GC..C.A.........A-..G..AG.C-....ICA..A..T..TA..........T.TAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-C.-.A...-A....-.......A.A...A.A.A..................GA..T-TC..ACE
H32 -A......-...A.G....................A..C.A.T.A..T..G.......T....AT..A.GC..C.A.........A-..G..AG.C-....ICA..A..T..TA..........T.TAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-C.-.....-A....-.......A.....A.A.A..................GA..T-TC..AC1A
1E
H39 -A.....G-.....G....................A..C.A.T.A..T..G.......T....AT..A.GC..C.A.........A-..G..AG.C-....ICA..A..T..TA..........T.TAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-C.-.....-A....-.......A.....A.A.A..................GA..T-TC..ACE
H26 -A......-.....G..............A.....A..C.A.T.A..T..G.......T....AT..A.GC..C.A.........A-..G..AG.C-....ICA..A..T..TA..........T.TAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-C.-.A...-A....-.......A.....A.A.A..................GA..T-TC..ACA
H44 -A.....G-.....G....................A..C.A.T.A..T..G.......T....AT..A.GC..C.A.........A-..G..AG.C-....ICA..A..T..TA..........T.TAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-C.-.A...-A....-.......A.....A.A.A..................GA..T-TC..ACEH62 -A......-.....G....................A..C.A.T.A..T..G.....A..C...AT.C..GC..C.A........A.-..G..AG.C-....ICA..A..T..TA..........T.TAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-...T....-A....-.......A.....A.A.A..................GA..T-TC..ACE
H59 -A......-.....G................CATCA..C.A.T.A..T..G.......T....AT..A.GC..C.A.........A-..G..AG.C-...GICA..A..T..TA..........T.TAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-C.-.A...-A....-.......A.....A.A.A..................GA..T-TC..ACE
H46 -A......-.....G....................A..C.A.T.A..T..G.......T....AT..A.GC..C.A.........A-..G..AG.C-....ICA..A..T..TA..........T.TAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-C..T..AA-A....-.......A.....A.A.A..................GA..T-TC..ACE
H24 -A......-.....G................CATC.AT...T..A..T..G.......T....AT..A.GC..C.A.........A-..G..AG.C-....ICA..A..T..TA..........T.TAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-C.-.A...-A....-.......A.....A.A.A..................GA..T-TC..ACA
H58 -...AGT.-....C.......C..C......CATC.AT...TT.A..T..G.......T....AT..A.GC..C.A.........A-..G..AG.C-....ICA..A..T..TA..........T.TAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-C.-.A...-A....-.......A.....A.A.A..................GA..T-TC..ACE
H6 -...AGT.-....C.......C..C......CATC.AT...TT.A..T..G.......T....AT..A.GC..C.A.........A-..G...G.C-....ICA..A..T..TA..........T.TAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-C.-.AA..-A....-.......A.....A.A.A..................GA..T-TC..ACA
H52 -...AGT.-....C.......C..C......CATC.AT...TT.A..T..G.......T....AT..A.GC..C.A.........A-..G..AG.C-....ICA..A..T..TA..........T.TAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-C.-.A...-A....-.......A.....A.A.A..................GA.-T-TC..AC2E
H40 -...AGT.-....C.......C..C.....TCATC.AT...TT.A..T..G.......T....AT..A.GC..C.A.........A-..G..AG.C-....ICA..A..T..TA..........T.TAC.CTCGCG-A..AA...T.GTT-C.-.A...-A....-.......A.....A.A.A..................GA..T-TC..ACE
H3 -......G-....C.......C..C.....TCATC.AT...TT.A..T..G.......T....AT..A.GC..C.A.........A-..G..AG.C-....ICA..A..T..TA..........T.TAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-C.-.AA..-A....-.......A.....A.A.A..................GA..T-TC..ACA
H43 -...AG..-....C..T....C..C......CATC.AT...TT.A..T..G.......T....AT..A.GC..C.A.........A-..G..AG.C-....ICA..A..T..TA..........T.TAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-C.-.A...-A....-.......A.....A.A.A..................GA..T-TC..ACE
H56 -...AG..-....C..T....C..C......CATC.AT...TT.A..T..G.......T....AT..A.GC..C.A.........A-..G..AG.C-....ICA..A..T..TA..........T.TAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-C.-.A...-A....-.......A.....A.A.A..........A.......GA..T-TC..AC3E
H15 -...AGT......C.......C..C......CATC.AT...TT.A..T..G.......T....AT..A.GC..C.A.........A-..G..AG.C-....ICA..A..T..TA..........T.TAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-C.-.....-A....-.......A.....A.A.A..................GA..T-TC..AC1A
1E
H33 -...AGT.-....C.......C..C......CATC.AT...TT.A..T..G.......T....AT..A.GC..C.A.........A-..G..AG.C-....ICA..A..T..TA..........T.TAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-C..T..AA-A....-.......A.....A.A.A..................GA..T-TC..ACA
H37 -...AGT.-....C..T....C..C......CATC.AT...TT.A..T..G.....A..C...AT.C..GC..C.A........A.-..G..AG.C-....ICA..A..T..TA..........T.TAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-...T....-A....-.......A.....A.A.A..........A.......GA..T-TC..AC1A
1E
O09
H7 -..A..T.-....C.......C..CG.G..T....A..C.A..A....CA.AT.TA.C...GT..T..C..A....G........A-.........-A............CT..............TACTCTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-..-..A..-AT...-.......A....GA.A.A..T...............GA.-T-TC..AC4A
H35 -..A.GT.-....C.......C..CG.G..T....A..C.A..A....CA..T.TA.C...GT..T..C..A....G........A-.........-A........A...CT..............TAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-..-..A..-AT...-.......A....GA.A.A..T...............GA.-T-TC..ACA
H31 -..A..T.-....C.......C..CG.G..T....A..C.A..A....CA.AT.TA.C...GT..T..C..A....G........A-........C-A............CT..............TACTCTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-..-..A..-AT...-.......A....GA.A.A..T...............GA.-T-TC..ACA
H23 -A......-.....G....................A..C.A..A....CA..T.TA.C...GT..T..C..A....G........A-........C-A........A...CT..............TAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-..-.....-AT...-.......A....GA.A.A..T..............AGA.-T-TC..ACA
H13 -A......-.....G....................A..C.A..A....CA..T.TA.C...GT..T..C..A....G........A-.........-A........A...CT..............TAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-..-.....-AT...-.......A....GA.A.A..T...............GA.-T-TC..ACA
H14 -A......-.....G....................A..C.A..A....CA..T.TA.C...GT..T..C..A....G........A-.........-A........A...CT..............TAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-..-..A..-AT...-.......A....GA.A.A..T...............GA.-T-TC..ACA
H8 -A......-.....G....................A..C.A..A....CA..T.TA.C...GT..T..C..A....G........A-.........-A........A...CT..............TAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-..-..A..-AT...-.......A....GA.A.A..T...............GA--T-TC..ACA
H4 -...A.........G....T.C..CGTG.......AAT..A..A....CA..T.TA.....GT..T..C..A.C.A...A.....A-.-.......-A........A...CT..............TAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-..-..A..-AT...-.......A....GA.A.A..TA..............GA.-T-TC..ACA
A201
H41 -.AA..T.-....C.......C..CG.G..T....A..C.A..A....CA..T.TA.....GT..T..C..A....G........A-.-......C-A........A...CT..............TA..CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-..-.A....A....-.......A....GA.A.A..T.............-.GA.-T-TC..AC3E
H57 -..A..T.-....C.......C..CG.G.......A..C.A..A....CA..T.TA.....GT..T..C..A....G........A-.-......C-A........A...CT..............TA..CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-..-.A....A....-.......A....GA.A.A..T.............-.GA.-T-TC..AC2E
H48 -.AA..T.-....C.......C..CG.GG.T....A..C.A..A....CA..T.TA.....GT..T..C..A....G........A-.-......C-A....C...A...CT..............TA..CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-..-......A....-.......A....GA.A.A..T.............-.GA.-T-TC..ACE
H22 -.AA..T.-....C.......C..CG.G..T....A..C.A..A....CA..T.TA.....GT..T..C..A....G........A-.-.......-A........A...CT..............TA..CTCGCG-...AAT..T.GTT-..-.A....A....-.......A....GA.A.A..T.............-.GA.-T-TC..ACA
H54 -.AA..T.-....C.......C..CG.G..T....A..C.A..A....C...T.TA.....GT..T..C..A....G........A-.-......C-A........A...CT..............TA..CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-..-.A....A....-.......A....GA.A.A..T.............-.GA.-T-TC..ACE
H36 ........-TT...GT...............CATC.AT...T...AAT..G.....A..C...AT.C..GC.GC.A..C...G.A.-....A.G.C-A........A...CT..............TA..CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-..-......A....-.......A....GA.A.A..T.............-.GA.-T-TC..ACA
A101
H11 -......G-....C.....T.CI-CGTG..T....A..C.A..A....CA..T.TA.....GT..T..C..A....G..A.....A-.-......C.A........A...CT..............TAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-..-......A....-.......A....GA.A.A..................GA.-T-TC..AC2A3E
H5 -.....T.-....C.....T.CI-CGTG..T....A..C.A..A....CA..T.TA.....GT..T..C..A....G..A.....A-.-......C.A........A...CT..............TAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-..-......A....-.......A....GA.A.A..................GA.-T-TC..ACA
H55 -.....T.-....C.....T.CI-CGTG..T....A..C.A..A....CA..TGTA.....GT..T..C..A....G..A.....A-.-......C.A........A...CT..............TAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-..-......A....-.......A....GA.A.A..................GA.-T-TC..ACE
H51 -.....T.-....C.....T.CI-CGTG..T....A..C.A..A...T.A..T.TA.....GT..T...G.A....G..A.....A-.-......C.A........A...CT..............TAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-..-......A....-.......A....GA.A.A..................GA.-T-TC..ACEH53 -.......-....C.....T.CI-CGTG..T....A..C.A..A....CA..T.TA.....GT..T..C..A....G..A.....A..-......C.A........A...CT..............TAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-..-......A....-.......A....GA.A.A..................GA.-T-TC..ACEH47 -......G-....C.....T.CI-CGTG..T....A..C.A..A....CA..T.TA.....GT..T..C..A....G..AG....A-.-.G....C.A........A...CT..............TAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-..-......A....-.......A....GA.A.A..................GA.-T-TC..ACE
H9 -...A.........G....T.C..CGTG..T....A..C.A..A....CA..T.TA.....GT..T..C..A....G..A.....A-.-......C.A........A...CT..............TAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-..-......A....-.......A....GA.A.A..................GA.-T-TC..ACA
B101
H19 -..A..T.-....C.......C..CG.G.AT....A..C.A..A....CA..T.TA....CGT..T..C..A..G.GA.......A-........C-A........AA..CT..............TAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-..-........T.C-T....GT...G.G...A.....G..T.A..AC.A.AG...T-.CATAC4A
H10 -..A..T.-....C.......C..CG.G.AT....A..C.A..A....CA..T.TA....CGT..T..C..A..G.GA.......A-........C-A........AA..CT..............TAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-..-........T.C-T....GT...G.G...A.....G..T.A..AC.A.AG.-.T-.CATACA
H16 -..A..T.-....C.......C..CG.G.AT....A.TC.A..A....CA..T.TA....CGT..T..C..A..G.GA.......A-........C-A.........A..C.....A.T.TA....TAC.CT.GC.-...AA...T.GTT-..-........T.C-T....GT...G.G...A.....G..T.A..AC.A.AG.-.T-.CATACA
H12 -..A..T.-....C.......C..CG.G..T....A..C.A..A....CA..T.TA.....GT..T..C..A....GA.......A-........C-A.A.I....AA..CT.............ATAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-..-........T.C-T....GT...G.G...A.....G..T.A..AC.A.AG.-.T-.CATAC2A
H20 -..A..T.-....C.......C..CG.G..T....A..C.A..A....CA..T.TA.....GT..T..C..A....GA...T...A-........C-A.A.I..C.AA..CT.............ATAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-..-........T.C-T....GT...G.G...A.....G..T.A..AC.A.AG.-.T-.CATACA
H25 -..A..T.-....C.......C..CG.G.......AAT..A..A....CA..T.TA.....GT..T..C..A....GA.......A-........C-A.A.ICA..AA..CT.............ATAC.CTCGCG-...AA...T.GTT-..-........T.C-T....GT...G.G...A.....G..T.A..AC.A.AG.-.T-.CATACA
H60 ........-TT...GT...............CATC.AT...T...AAT..G.....A..C...AT.C..GC..C.A..C...G.A.-....A.G.C-A......C.....C.T..T...T..TT....C.........TA...G..T.....T.T..AA-....C-T....GT...G.G...A.....G..T.A..AC.A.AG...T-.CATACA

[
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
110
120
130
140
150
160
170
180
190
200
210
[
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Ptr IGGGGCCAIGCCGTACCGCCGT-ITACAAGAGGCGGGCACGCCGGCGATGAGCCCGCTCTTACGCATTTATTTTTCTGGGACAGGGICIATGGTTTIGCGT-TGAACGACGCCCGGGACCCGCACCCGTCTCTATCICCGGCCTAGCACGITCICGCCGIGCGTTICGCCTACGTGAGAGGGGGAGCGCCTCGGCCCGGGIGAGIICIGTGCCT------------ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ----------------------------------------3’
1
I N T R O N 1
INT2 E3
INTRON3
E4
INTRON 4
5 INT5 E6INTRON 6
EXON 7
3’128
Hum Genet (2008) 124:123–135

Hum Genet (2008) 124:123–135

129

䉳 Fig. 2 Haplotypes reconstructed from the Seattle SNPs ABO sequences. Top row alleles at a chimpanzee allele sequence, below exon/
intron structure. Dots indicate identity with the chimpanzee sequence.
I/- stand for the long/short alleles in insertion/deletion polymorphisms
and do not necessarily imply the direction of the actual mutation event.
The “I” allele corresponds to the addition of CCCTTCCT in SNP1;
SNP9, GAGGAATTGC CACAATTTTT TCCTGGCCTG CACC;
SNP10, TGCACC; SNP23, A; SNP24, TG; SNP87, TAAA; SNP89,
GGCAGTTT; SNP97, TAGTGGTGGGCG; SNP102, GG; SNP137,
GTGTGGACAGAAG; SNP151, C; SNP154, CCC; SNP160, G;
SNP165, T; SNP166, TGGGGCTCG; SNP201, C; SNP205, CACA;
SNP206, CACA; SNP208, ACACACAGACACATAGA. Codons 266
and 268, which determine A/B activity are boxed in the B101 haplotypes. 261 is site 160. Lineages are color-coded (only in the online
version of the Wgure) and labelled on the right-hand side: magenta for
O47, brown for O02, blue for O01, green for A101/A201/O09, red for
B101. Haplotypes carrying sequences of diVerent colors may be the result of recombination or gene conversion. Absolute population frequencies are also indicated on the right-hand side, with A for AfricanAmericans and E for European-Americans: for example, haplotype
H29 is labelled “A7E” because it was found in one African-Americanand seven European-Americans

between A and B alleles appears more deeply subdivided
into well-deWned lineages.
Table 2 shows the lineage frequencies in European- andAfrican-Americans. Again, African-Americans are morediverse. FST based on lineage frequencies is 0.1069(P < 0.001). However, at the sequence level, FST between
the two populations is 0.0573 (P = 0.01); this lower value
can be explained by parallel substitutions and recombination among lineages. Both values are well within the known
distribution of FST, which points to the absence of population-speciWc selective pressures, at least between Africans
and Europeans.
Next, we tested for departures from the neutral model.
Tajima’s D was 1.982 (P < 0.0001) for the whole sample,
1.662 (P = 0.0022) for African-Americans and 2.383(P < 0.0001) for European-Americans. It should be taken
Fig. 3 Divergence between
O01 and O02 alleles, expressedas Dxy (£10¡3). X-axis as inFig. 1. The arrow indicates the
position of 261

into account that only one, two, and six out of 320 genes
had larger Tajima’s D values in Seattle SNP genes respectively in the whole sample, African-Americans, and European-Americans. This shows that ABO has an extreme
allele frequency spectrum as mesaured by Tajima’s D, andthat it is unlikely that demographic history, which acts on
the whole genome, would be the only factor modelling thisspectrum. Therefore, we can infer that balancing selection
has had a role in preserving a diversity of ancient lineages.
Along the gene (Fig. 6), Tajima’s D shows signiWcant
peaks in intron 1, exon 2, intron 4, and the 3’ region; about
30% of the total sequence length has signiWcant (two-tailed
P < 0.05) Tajima’s D values, as ascertained with a slidingwindow-speciWc heuristic (Ardell 2004). When considering
the two populations separately, most of the signiWcant windows in the overall analysis remained signiWcant, and new
signiWcant peaks were detected in intron 1 for both populations, and in intron 2 to intron 3, intron 4, and intron 5 tointron 6 (including exon 6) only in European-Americans. It
is possible, as discussed below, that linkage disequilibrium
may be strong enough in this 23 Kb region to prevent the
precise pinpointing of particular segments (or, even less,particular polymorphisms) as being the biological targets ofbalancing selection.
Fu and Li’s F test with the chimpanzee sequence as outgroup was F = 2.253 overall, 2.037 in African-Americans
and 2.693 in European-Americans, all signiWcant with
P < 0.001. This implies that the average diVerence between
human sequences is larger than expected considering thedivergence between humans and chimpanzees. Along thegene (data not shown), Fu and Li’s F is high in the Wrst halfof intron 1 (as Tajima’s D), but it also peaks at the very endof intron 1, in intron 3 and from exons 5 to 6.
The total divergence between human and chimpanzee is0.0142. For comparison purposes, this total Wgure can be

Dxy 10-3
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
2

1

5

0

20 30

15

10

40

50 60

70

4

80

90

100

5 6

7

25 Kb

20

110120 130 140

150

200
190
180
170
160

10

3

210

SNP

123

130

Hum Genet (2008) 124:123–135
chimp

Hap 5775.5/1 Hap 48
Hap 41
Hap 5439.2/0.98

Hap 22
Hap 5
Hap 55
Hap 51

100/1

Hap 53
Hap 47
Hap 11
Hap 3599.6/194.0/1

Hap 31
Hap 7

Hap 49Hap 26
Hap 44

A101

100/1
Hap 39Hap 50

A201

Hap 32

O09

Hap 21

O01

selection probably has also had a role in shaping the genealogy of ABO. Under these circumstances, it is extremelycomplex to obtain reliable time estimates; therefore, what
follows should be taken as a general indication of the time
depth of ABO rather than an attempt to a precise chronology. From the average number of nucleotide changes to thetree root, and assuming that all of them have been generated
by mutation, we obtain a total depth for the overall treeof 2.65 § 0.50 Mya (million years ago), in the lower end of
the interval estimated by Saitou and Yamamoto (1997)
based on a few cDNA sequences. This is a very long tree:
scaled in units of Ne generations, it would be over 13, or far
beyond the expected depth of a neutral tree. However, thisaverage age masks diVerences both across lineages andalong the sequence. From nucleotide positions 1 to 6,000(from the beginning of the sequence to 3.5 Kb into intron1), the average time would be just 2.05 § 0.67 Mya. In thecentral segment we deWned above, the average time is2.83 § 0.70 Mya. Finally, in the 3⬘ segment, the genealogy
becomes much longer, reaching an average 4.84 § 0.85
Mya, close to the range of ages estimated for the humanchimpanzee split (5–6 Mya).
Population genetics of O allele diversity

Hap 30100/1

O02

Hap 34
Hap 29
Hap 61
Hap 450.01

Fig. 4 Maximum-likelihood (ML) tree of the presumably non-recombinant ABO haplotypes in Seattle SNPs. Lineages are indicated bysymbols. Figures indicate percent bootstrap support of the ML tree formain nodes, and, after the slash, the posterior probabilities obtainedwith a Bayesian model. Haplotypes are labelled as in Fig. 2

inXuenced by the proportion of coding and non-coding
sequence. The non-coding divergence in ABO(Ki = 0.0141) is above the mean (0.0127) for 12,997 autosomal genes (The Chimpanzee Sequencing and Analysis
Consortium 2005), but 20.4% of those have higher divergences than ABO. In the coding regions of ABO, the synonymous divergence (Ks = 0.0423) was larger than the
genomewide mean (0.0143), though not extreme (3.6% of
the genes have higher values). Finally, the nonsynonymous
divergence was Ka = 0.0092, again larger than the mean
but not out of the genomewide distribution (8.7% of genes
have larger divergences). The Ka/Ks ratio was 0.211, andthe McDonald and Kreitman’s test was not signiWcant(P = 0.489).
Recombination has conspicuously acted in the genealogy of ABO sequences, probably contributing to the diVerences in terminal branch length (see Fig. 5c); balancing

123

Roubinet et al. (2004) sequenced 1,875 bp of the ABO
gene, comprising exon 6, intron 6, and exon 7, in 814 O
chromosomes from seven populations (Akan from the
Ivory Coast, Berbers from Morocco, Basques from France
and Spain, Han Chinese from Putien and Fujiou, and Cayapas and Aymaras from Bolivia). The basic descriptive
parameters of sequence variation for O allele sequences areshown in Table 3. Haplotype (H) and nucleotide () variation are highest in the African Akans, a trend that is shownby a number of African populations in many (though notall) genes (Calafell et al. 1998; Mateu et al. 2001; TishkoV
et al. 1996, 1998), and that is compatible with a recent andAfrican origin of modern humans. It should be noted that
nucleotide diversity is extremely high in any population,
but slightly lower than for the same region in Seattle SNPs
(60.5 £ 10¡4).
An analysis of the molecular variance (AMOVA)(ExcoYer et al. 1992) among the seven populations,showed that, within the O alleles, 7.02% (signiWcantly
diVerent from zero, P < 10¡5) of the genetic variation was
accounted for by diVerences among populations. These values are below the average (»15%) but within the range
observed for other genes (Barbujani et al. 1997; Romualdi
et al. 2002), although this reference can depend on thenumber and distribution of populations analyzed. The factthat genetic variation within O allele sequences is relatively
homogeneous among populations may be interpreted as theresult of geographically homogeneous selective pressures,

Hum Genet (2008) 124:123–135

131

A

B

C

chimp
Hap 2593.2/1 Hap 57
Haps 7 12 20 31
Hap 35
Hap 48Haps 22 41 54
90/0.84

Hap 16
Haps 10 17 19
Haps 5 51 55

93.1/1 Hap 53
Haps 11 47
Hap 2695/0.85 Haps 46 49 62
Haps 39 44
Haps 32 50
Haps 21 29 30 34 36 42 45 60 61
99.9/1

Hap 38chimp
Hap 51
Hap 5597.8/1 Haps 5 9 11
Hap 53
Hap 47
Hap 4
Hap 23
Hap 13
Haps 8 14 35
Hap 31
Hap 7
Hap 2092.7/0.99
Hap 12
85.4/1
Hap 16
Haps 10 19
Hap 4860.7/0.96
Hap 22
Haps 41 57
Hap 54
Haps 15 32 39
Hap 6
100/1
Hap 3
Haps 24 26 43 44 49 50 52 56 58
Hap 59Hap 40Haps 21 28 60
Haps
27 30
100/1
Haps 29 45 61
Hap 34chimp
Haps 2 17 18
Hap 61

81.1/0.97

Haps 21 28

99.1/1

Haps 27 29 30 38
Hap 45
Hap 42
Hap 34
Haps 5 9 11 47 51 53 55
Haps 22 36 41 48 54 57
98.2/0.99

Hap 23
Haps 7 13 14 31 35
Hap 4

30.3/0.34

Hap 8
Hap 52

93.1/0.96

50.5/0.48 Hap 50
Haps 37 56
Haps 3 6 15 24 26 32 33 39 40
43 44 46 49 58 59 62
Haps 10 12 16 20 25
100/1

Hap 190.01

Fig. 5 Maximum-likelihood trees of the presumably non-recombinant
ABO haplotypes in Seattle SNPs. a from positions 1 to 6,000, b frompositions 6,001 to 20,124, c from positions 20,125 to 23,759.
Recombinant haplotypes have not entered the trees corresponding to
the region where the putative recombination event took place (forinstance, haplotype 25 appears to have experienced gene conversion in

the b region and was excluded from that tree, whereas it appears in segments a and c). This explains why the number of haplotypes is not thesame across the three trees. Symbols are as in Fig. 4, with the additionof stars (B101) and pentagons (O47). Figures indicate percent bootstrap support of the ML tree for main nodes, and, after the slash, theposterior probabilities obtained with a Bayesian model

Table 2 Frequencies for the diVerent ABO lineages in the Seattle
SNP dataset

manifest and points to balancing selection, and ancient lineages have been preserved even within the O null-allele
class.
The ABO complete sequences produced by Seattle SNPs
show a complex pattern in which the action of gene conversion and recombination is evident, and in which the genealogical patterns and the depth of the phylogeny change
along the sequence. This is the standard behavior of theautosomal genome, in which recombination creates amosaic of diVerent gene genealogies with diVerent evolutionary history. The present challenge in understanding andusing the genome variation in autosomes is highly dependent of our ability to recognize past recombination eventsin the present genetic structure. Nonetheless, a number ofdistinct lineages were revealed: (1) O02, and, as a quite distinct subclade, O47, although divergence from O02
extended only to the 3⬘ and 5⬘ ends of the gene; (2) O01,
which, beyond the exon 6 to exon 7 region was clearly separated from A101; (3) the A101/A201/O09 group; and (4)B101, which, as described by Seltsam et al. (2003), carries
an A201-like sequence upstream of exon 6. This means
that, in any case, and with more extensive sequence, we
could not recover the Wve-lineage phylogeny proposed by
Seltsam et al. (2003). Beyond the typological description, aphylogenetic analysis allows to trace the evolution of ABO

Lineage

Afr. Am.

Eur. Am.

O47

4 (0.083)–

O02

8 (0.167)

11 (0.239)

O01

8 (0.167)

21 (0.457)

O09

11 (0.229)

–

A101

4 (0.083)

7 (0.152)

A201

2 (0.042)

7 (0.152)B101

11 (0.229)–

Each haplotype was allocated to the lineage it bore in the 5⬘ end of thesequence. See also Fig. 2

or of selective pressures that predate the expansion of anatomically modern humans.

Discussion
Analysis of two complementary data sets of ABO sequencevariation has shown the depth and complexity of the genealogical relations among the allele lineages, highlighting arole for recombination; evidence of non-neutral evolution is

123

132

Hum Genet (2008) 124:123–135

Fig. 6 Tajima’s D along the
ABO sequence. Window lengthand X-axis as in Fig. 1. Statistically signiWcant peaks aremarked with black bars above
them

4
3
2
1
0

2

1

5

0

20 30

50 60

Table 3 Sequence variability parameters in O alleles from Roubinet
et al. (2004)
N

k

S

H



Akans

136

15

42

0.868 § 0.011

62

Berbers

78

933

0.656 § 0.04252Basques

220

11

40

0.583 § 0.026

51

Putien94

2

190.491 § 0.019

50

Fujiou86

219

0.506 § 0.009

52

Cayapas74

5

210.580 § 0.034

52

Aymaras

126

5

22

0.563 § 0.035

42

Total

814

23

51

0.666 § 0.011

55

N sample size, k number of diVerent haplotypes, S number of polymorphic sites, H haplotype diversity,  nucleotide diversity

sequences. Based on the shared functionality of the A alleles in humans, chimpanzees, and bonobos (Blancher andSocha 1997), and the diVerent inactivation mechanism of O
alleles in chimpanzees (Kermarrec et al. 1999), it can beproposed that the ancestral human sequence was A, as
noted also by Saitou and Yamamoto (1997). The Wrst nonA allele to appear was B101, which, using the divergence
between A101 and B101 in the region downstream of exon
6, can be dated at »3.5 Mya (95% CI: 2.64–4.36 Mya)(henceforth, all dates given are based on the raw mean
divergence between lineages and on the substitution rate
described in the “Methods” section; all caveats to dating
lineages in ABO discussed above apply). This age would
place the origin of B well after the split of the human andchimpanzee lineages, and conWrms the absence of extensetrans-speciWc polymorphism (beyond the functional substitutions at codons 266 and 268 shared by humans, gorillas,and orangutans) as modelled by Wiuf et al. (2004). The
next oldest allele appears to be O02, which may havediverged from A101 »2.5 Mya (95% CI: 2.20–2.80 Mya).
One of the mutations that appeared in the O02 branch andthat inactivated the gene is 261. As discussed above, thedivergence pattern between O02 and O01 makes it unlikely

123

70

5 6

15

10

40

4

80

90

100

7

25 Kb

20

110120 130 140

150

200
190
180
170
160

10

3

210

SNP

that these two lineages share 261 from a common ancestor; on the contrary, O01 seems to have sprung from A101
»1.15 Mya (95% CI: 0.95–1.35 Mya), and, after that,
acquired 261 by mutation or gene conversion. This position falls in an exonic, non-repeat region, and the sequence
context does not seem to facilitate repeated deletion events.
Note that a third lineage acquired 261; namely, O09,
which is closely related to A101, from which it may haveseparated »316 thousand years ago (Kya) (95% CI: 231–
401 Kya). A101 also generated A201 »288 Kya (95% CI:
205–371 Kya); shortly after that (at »260 Kya, 95% CI:
167–353 Kya), A201 recombined with B101, obliterating
the original B101 sequence upstream of exon 6; sometime
later, the previous non-recombinant forms of B101 werelost (or reduced to such low frequencies that they have notyet been sampled).
We have shown that diVerent regions of the ABO geneshow diVerent phylogenetic depths, with variation at theregion coding for the catalytic domain carrying the amountof variation that would require the longest time to accumulate. This, with other evidence discussed below, can beinterpreted as the footprint of balancing selection acting on
the A, B, and O alleles. Stajich and Hahn (2005) foundextremely positive Tajima’s D values in complete samplesof ABO variation from European- and African-Americans,which they interpreted as balancing selection involving thethree (A, B, and O) main alleles. We have replicated that
result, put it into the context of the functional lineages of
ABO, and found that Tajima’s D and Fu and Li’s F signiWcantly positive values extend beyond the functionally crucial exon 7 and peak elsewhere, particularly in intron 1.
Moreover, extreme sequence divergence can also be foundbetween lineages that are functionally equivalent such as
O01 and O02. Neutrality statistics based on amino aciddivergence from the chimpanzee (such as the Ka/Ks ratioand McDonald and Kreitman’s test) were not signiWcant:balancing selection may have acted on only two amino acidreplacements, or on any change that inactivated the gene.
The highest peaks for Tajima’s D are found in intron 1;
note, though, that signiWcant peaks were also foundHum Genet (2008) 124:123–135

elsewhere, and that signiWcance depends on the population
being analyzed. SNPs in intron 1 were not found to fall in
any of the putatively functional categories (namely, triplex
sequences, intron boundaries, and mouse-conserved
regions) considered by Pupasuite (http://pupasuite.bioinfo.cipf.es/) (Conde et al. 2006). Actually, most of thehuman ABO intron 1 sequence is comprised of repeatedelements, and it is unlikely that intron 1 has a major biological role in ABO expression or functionality. Thus, weinterpret the Tajima’s D peaks at intron 1 as the result of therandom accumulation of old, frequent, and probably neutral
mutations in a context of balancing selection and linkage
disequilibrium. Even though most lineages at ABO arequite ancient, this is a relatively short (23 Kb) region, withapparently an average recombination rate. LD would, thus,
reduce the precision with which a particular target of balancing selection can be spotted, and generate random peaks
and troughs in neutrality statistics, Xuctuating around a signiWcantly positive baseline value.
Long extended haplotypes have been detected upstreamof the ABO gene in the HapMap samples (Sabeti et al.
2006), as well as a segment with an extremely low FST
value. Fry et al. (2007) used these two pieces of evidence toconclude that balancing selection at ABO may have acted
upstream of the antigen-deWning region of exon 6 to exon
7. Note, though, that selection at ABO can be extremelycomplex and local, depending on endemic pathogens (asdiscussed below), and that is unlikely to have operate globally with exactly the same selective coeYcients, as
required to maintain low interpopulation diVerentiation(FST). Using extensive resequencing data and a more accurate phylogeographic analysis, we can conWrm that, indeed,
the strongest signal for selection at ABO appears to be at
intron 1. Actually, our approach may be more powerful todetect an apparently old mutation event, since resequencing
allows the full description of the spectrum of allele frequency variation (Soldevila et al. 2005), which is more
likely to have retained and ancient signal of selection (see,for instance, Fig. 1 in ref. (Sabeti et al. 2006)). On the contrary, Bubb et al. (2006) used whole genome simulations toconclude that polymorphism at ABO was not signiWcantly
diVerent from that expected under neutral expectations;however, they only used the last four exons of the ABO
gene and therefore may have lacked suYcient statisticalpower as given by additional sequence.
It is highly unlikely that a small, stable population suchas that of the human lineage before the modern expansions
could have retained three neutral alleles at a locus for millions of years. The probability that three chromosomes
sampled at random do not coalesce in 125,000 generations(2.5 Mya at 20 years/generation) in a stable, panmictic population of Ne = 10,000 is »10¡17 (Eq. 3 in Nordborg(2001)), or that of four alleles not coalescing in 1.15 Mya is

133»10¡15. HLA could be a model system for ABO, in which aselective advantage for heterozygotes could have led to theconservation of an extremely diverse allele repertoire.
However, there is an obvious diVerence between ABO andHLA: in the former, a null (but phenotypically relevant)allele is among those maintained at a high frequency, and,further to that, variation within that null allele seems to berather ancient. In a context of balancing selection in which
the null alleles may have been selected for, as discussed
below, O01, created by a parallel mutation or gene conversion event may have been driven to high frequencies at theexpense of A and B alleles but not of the pre-existing O02.
This may partially explain why two very divergent but
functionally equivalent alleles may coexist.
It may be the case that the selective pressures are notexclusively exerted on the A and B antigens, but on theanti-A and anti-B antibodies as well. AB individuals lackboth speciWcities, which may be a selective disadvantage,as hinted by several clues: no mammal species presents
exactly A and B; only the mouse glycosyltranferase (which
is monomorphic) produces both A and B antigens, and, inhumans, although such alleles exist [cis-AB and B(A)], they
are exceedingly rare. Thus, not only a simple model ofheterozygote advantage between A and B seems to be ruled
out, but on the contrary, AB phenotypes may have been
selected against. That would lead to an unstable equilibrium and to the loss of either A or B. However, the situation
can be stabilized with a recessive null allele, which
increases the relative frequencies of A and B over AB individuals by adding the AO and BO heterozygote individuals.
Alternatively, frequency-depending selection can haveoperated on the ABO locus. Since diVerent pathogens
anchor to diVerent antigens, their transmissibility and themortality they inXict on populations might increase with thefrequency of their ABO allele product (sugar chain) receptor in the population, thus favoring the other alleles. The
following epidemic may have had the opposite eVect, andthis pattern of selection would keep the high polymorphism
at ABO, including a large number of diVerent lineages.
Such selective events would have contributed to the raise infrequency of any lineage carrying 261. In a third scenario,
polymorphic species of pathogens can also stabilize ABOpolymorphism in its host depending on the selection coeYcients of each strain of pathogen against each host genotype(Fischer et al. 1998).

Conclusions
We have unraveled the phylogeny of the several functionaland non-functional lineages in the human ABO gene, andhave highlighted how that phylogeny changes along thegene due to past recombination events. We have undertaken

123

134

the most detailed evolutionary analysis of the human ABO
gene so far, and have found clear evidence of balancing
selection in it. We propose several hypotheses for the causeof that selection, which most likely involved interactions
with multiple pathogens at diVerent geographic regions andtime scales.
The complexity of a clear Mendelian trait as the ABO
blood group comes through the intricacy of cell surface
interactions, and, at the molecular level has the clear footprint of a dynamics driven by selection through a deep pastin human history, which is diYcult to isolate and measure
due to the complex dynamics of the genome, mainly due torecombination.
Acknowledgments The authors wish to especially thank Deborah
Nickerson at the University of Washington, for making the excellently
curated Seattle SNP sequence database openly available to researchers.
This work was supported by grants BFU2004-02002 and BFU200763657 from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, and DURSI, Generalitat de Catalunya (Grup de Recerca Consolidat
2005SGR00608), as well as with funds from Etablissement Français
du Sang (EFS) Pyrénées-Méditerranée and Centre Atlantique, andfrom Ministère Français de la Recherche (EA3034).

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