ArticlePloS one2016
Heterozygote Advantage Probably Maintains Rhesus Factor Blood Group Polymorphism: Ecological Regression Study.
Article in PloS one, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- Toxoplasma infection and Rhesus blood group system: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2023Pooled it
- Beyond Latency: ChronicBiomedicines · 2025Review
- [Colombian consensus for the diagnosis, prevention, and management of Rhesus disease].Revista colombiana de obstetricia y ginecologia · 2024Article
- Article
- The importance of being heterozygote: effects of RHD-genotype-sex interaction on the physical and mental health of a non-clinical population.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Faster life history strategy manifests itself by lower age at menarche, higher sexual desire, and earlier reproduction in people with worse health.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Copy number variation in human genomes from three major ethno-linguistic groups in Africa.BMC genomics · 2020Article
- Article
- Rhesus-minus phenotype as a predictor of sexual desire and behavior, wellbeing, mental health, and fecundity.PloS one · 2020Article
- Negative Effects of Latent Toxoplasmosis on Mental Health.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2019Article
- Sequence diversity of the Rh blood group system in Basques.European journal of human genetics : EJHG · 2018Article
- Blood Groups Distribution and Gene Diversity of the ABO and Rh (D)BioMed research international · 2018Article
- Lower performance of Toxoplasma-infected, Rh-negative subjects in the weight holding and hand-grip tests.PloS one · 2018Article
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Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Rhesus factor polymorphism has been an evolutionary enigma since its discovery in 1939. Carriers of the rarer allele should be eliminated by selection against Rhesus positive children born to Rhesus negative mothers. Here I used an ecologic regression study to test the hypothesis that Rhesus factor polymorphism is stabilized by heterozygote advantage. The study was performed in 65 countries for which the frequencies of RhD phenotypes and specific disease burden data were available. I performed multiple multivariate covariance analysis with five potential confounding variables: GDP, latitude (distance from the equator), humidity, medical care expenditure per capita and frequencies of smokers. The results showed that the burden associated with many diseases correlated with the frequencies of particular Rhesus genotypes in a country and that the direction of the relation was nearly always the opposite for the frequency of Rhesus negative homozygotes and that of Rhesus positive heterozygotes. On the population level, a Rhesus-negativity-associated burden could be compensated for by the heterozygote advantage, but for Rhesus negative subjects this burden represents a serious problem.
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