What is the scientific explanation for people who have rhesus negative blood?

[electra]

Stupidly I googled it and all I could find were crazy ideas that since blood cannot mutate and people are supposed to be linked to the rhesus monkey, we must be descended from aliens.

Now, I know this is crazy and there must be some rational explanation - does anyone have one?? (panic panic) sorry I am in a bit of a strange mood and it made me feel most uneasy.

Why on earth would anyone say that blood cannot mutate? Blood cells are created by bone marrow, which has cells with DNA just like any other cells in your body. Blood comes in a variety of different types - O/A/B as well as Rh+/- - so there are loads of different variations in blood, which come from the bits of your DNA which control the building of the blood cells.

The changes which cause mutations wouldn't happen just in the blood cells - those don't get passed on to your children anyway - the changes would be in the DNA of your eggs and sperm, and are passed on to your children.

What a load of shite!

The gene for Rhesus factor is found on chromosome 1. Any gene can mutate. The particular type of mutation for Rhesus is a gene deletion, where somewhere back in the mists of time, the gene was not copied into the DNA, was cut out of it by mistake. Therefore, these poeple do not have the gene to make this factor and are termed Rhesus negative.

The protein has nothing to do with Rhesus monkeys, really, other than that the factor was first identified in Rhesus monkeys. If it was first discovered in mice, for example it might have been called Murine factor.

The genes encoding for blood cell components can mutate, just like any other gene, but are generally more stable, so we see fewer mutations.

The gene encoding for rhesus factor is deleted in rh -ve subjects, and blood cells are missing a surface antigen.

I prefer the monkey/alien explanation personally... Just call me 'Space Chimp!'

Thanks for replies - I guess if there is a strange but famous idea about something then it will come up straight away in google!

The more I read the more freaked out I got as it says people who are rh negative have unusually low blood pressure and body temperature - that is true of me!

But although it is supposedly rarer there are quite a lot of us I think...

I am a Rhesus Neg - im sure I once read that we make up about 17% of the population - so not really rare at all.

I like Mumsnet. Within the space of twenty seconds I can learn that I am descended from an alien and then learn that I am not descended from an alien after all - and come away from the thread knowing something useful about blood pressure and body temp that I didn't know before.

It depends what part of the world you live venus - in the UK and the US it's supposedly 15% but in some parts of the world much rarer, like 2%.

I'm rhesus negative and have high blood pressure.....does that make me a super evolved alien descendant/mutant or the opposite??

OR am I really Rh pos and it is all a conspiracy by the NHS to give me more blood tests and injections in pregnancy?

lol