Children's Blood Types

[Hutch]

If both parents are blood type O, can their children be any other blood type than O?

[j2buttonsw]

According to this web site if both parents are O then the child is O too: http://www.biology.arizona.edu/human_bio/problem_s
ets/blood_types/inherited.html#calculator

[doristwonk]

Hereditary attributes are always difficult things to grasp. My G.P. explained it best. He said that the best way to understand it was by remembering that ' if you mother and father were unable to have children, then you will be unable to have children too'.

[bernardo]

No. You would know this if you had been watching EastEnders recently, like us normal sad anoraks.

[Squirrel]

The blood types A and B are known to be codominant to each other. That is to say, if a child has inherited the A allele and the B allele from the parents, neither the A nor the B is dominant or recessive so the child gets blood type AB. In addition to this, both A and B are dominant over type O - if a child has the A allele and the O allele then it will have type A blood.

Alleles (mum / dad) ---> Blood Type
AA ---> A
BB ---> B
AB ---> AB
BA ---> AB
AO ---> A
OA ---> A
BO ---> B
OB ---> B
OO ---> O

Two type O parents obviously only have the type O allele, and therefore, no matter how many children they have, only the type O allele can be passed on.

[nicrite]

Actually, it is possible for a child of two type O parents to have a different blod group. This is because the parents have two alleles each. As long as each parent has just one O allele combined with something else, they can have a child of a different blod group. For example if a parent has an O allele and a A allele and the other has an A allele and a B allele their children could have different combinations of this. This therefore maens that they could have childen with O blood when the two O alleles combine, or the O from one parent could combine with the B from the other, making the child have type B because B is dominant over O. The same would happen with A; if an A allele combined with an O the child would be A type. Or an A and a B could combine to make AB. This therefore means that it is possible for two O bloded parents to have b4 children, and for all the children to have blood that isnt O. The only way that parents couldn't concieve a child with blood type other than O is if they both have two O alleles. By the way in case you were wondering I have just studied A level biology and thats how I know this, I'm not really sad!

[nicrite]

Oooooopss I've just spotted a mistake in my answer!! I meant that one parent should have an O and A allele and one should have a B and an O. Sorry! (also I can spell blood really) Funnily I didn't take IT at A level for obvious reasons!