Lewis (FUT3) genotypes in Taiwanese, Thai, and Filipino populations

 The Lewis (Le) blood type comprises two major antigens, Le^a and Le^b, which are encoded by α (1,2)-fucosyltransferase (FUT2) and α (1,3/1,4)-fucosyltransferase (FUT3). In this study, we analyzed the mutations of FUT3 in Taiwanese, Thai, and Filipino populations and correlated these with serologic phenotypes. One hundred and thirty-seven Taiwanese, 71 Thai, and 125 Filipino were studied unselectively. The frequency of the normal and four other mutant alleles for Taiwanese, Thai, and Filipino, respectively, were as follows: 187/274 (68.2%), 87/142 (61.3%), and 160/250 (64.0%) were wild type (Le); 14/274 (5.1%), 1/142 (0.7%), and 1/250 (0.4%) were a T202C/C314T mutation (le^202,314); 35/274 (12.8%), 15/142 (10.6%), and 22/250 (8.8%) had the G508A mutation (le⁵⁰⁸); and 38/274 (13.9%), 39/142 (27.4%), and 67/250 (26.8%) carried the T1067A mutation (le¹⁰⁶⁷). The le⁴⁴⁵ and le¹⁰⁰⁷ were not detected in this study. Our result provided the first genetic data of the FUT3 gene in these three populations, and the frequency distribution of mutant alleles among Taiwanese, Thai, and Filipinos demonstrates a significant difference (P<0.001). In our study, the le^202,314 mutation had considerable frequency in the Taiwanese, but the le¹⁰⁶⁷ mutation had a higher frequency in Thai and Filipinos. Received: 11 November 1999 / Accepted: 4 April 2000