I’m a male. If my blood type is O+ and my wife’s blood type is B+, what are the possible blood types that my child can be?
B+, B-, O+, O-
The possibilities are B+, B-, O+, and O-, depending on your and your wife’s genes and probability.
Each of you carries two genes for each each trait. The ABO type is one trait and the Rh+/- is another trait. Let’s take the two types seperately. O is recessive so your genes are OO. Type B can be BB or BO. If your wife is BB, then all children will be BO, which shows up as type B. If she is BO, then there is a 50% chance the child will be BO (type B) and a 50% chance the child will be OO (type O).
In this case, the Rh+/- is more complicated. Rh+ is dominate, so either of you could be ++ or ±. If you’re both ++ then all children will be ++ (Rh+), If one of you is ++ and the other ±, then half of the children will be ± (Rh+) and half will be ± (Rh+). If you’re both ±, then 1/4 of the children will be ++ (Rh+), half ± (Rh+), and 1/4 – (Rh-).
Thanks.
Okay, something more challenging. If my bloodtype is A+, then what bloodtypes could my parents have been?
If your blood type is A+, your parents could have been almost anything. At least parent was either A or AB, and at least one parent was Rh+, but otherwise, your parents could have been O- and AB+, both AB+, A+ and A-, one A- one B+…
OK, blood types are fairly simple. A and B are codominant, O is recessive. If you have two O alleles, or OO, you will be type O. If you are AA or AO, you will be type A. If you are BB or BO you will be type B. If you are AB, you will be type AB. So there are 4 phenotypes: A, B, AB and O, and 6 genotypes: AA, AO, BB, BO, AB, and OO. 6 genotypes gives 21 possible mating combinations. Rh is simpler, there are two phenotypes, + and -, and three genotypes, ++ (making you +), ± (making you +), and – (making you -), and 6 possible mating combinations.
Since you are Rh+, you can be either ++ or ±. Your parents could have been ++ and ++, ++ and ±, ± and ±, ++ and --, or ± and --. The only thing they couldn’t be is – and --. If you ever have children, we could look at their Rh type and the Rh of your spouse and possibly determine if you are ++ or ±, which would rule out some of the combinations above. Also knowing the Rh type of your siblings could help narrow things.
If your blood type is A, then you can be either AA or AO. You got one A from one parent, and either an A or an O from the other. The parent that gave you the first A could be AA, AO, or AB. The other parent could be AA, AO, OO, BO, or AB. You could not have come from BBxOO, BBxBB, BBxBO, BBxAB, BBxAA, BBxAO, BOxBO, BOxOO, or OOxOO matings. You could have come from AAxAA, AAxAO, AAxAB, AAxOO, AAxBO, AOxAO, AOxAB, AOxOO, AOxBO, ABxAB, ABxBO, or ABxOO matings.
If you are B, then the above paragraph applies, just transpose As and Bs. If you are O, then you could come from AOxOO, BOxOO or OOxOO matings. If you are AB, you could come from AAxAB, AAxBO, AAxBB, AOxAB, AOxBO, AOxBB, ABxAB, ABxBO, or ABxBB matings. If you are Rh+, you could come from ++x++, ++x±, ++x–, ±x±, or ±x-- matings. If you are Rh-, you could come from ±x±, ±x–, or --x-- matings.