Detection of the weak‐secretor rs1047781 (385A>T) single nucleotide polymorphism using an unlabeled probe high‐resolution melting‐based method

Abstract FUT2 encodes galactoside 2‐α‐ l ‐fucosyltransferase 2 which determines the secretor status of ABO(H) blood group antigens. Secretors have at least one functional FUT2 allele ( Se ), while nonsecretors or weak secretors are homozygous for nonfunctional (non‐ or weak secretor) FUT2 alleles ( se or Se w ). The Se w having the 385A>T missense SNP (rs1047781) is the prevalent nonfunctional allele in East and Southeast Asians. In this study, we developed an unlabeled‐probe high‐resolution melting (HRM) analysis for genotyping of 385A>T and validated the method by analyzing 72 Japanese whose 385A>T genotypes were confirmed by DNA sequencing. The unlabeled‐probe HRM analysis clearly discriminated three genotypes of 385A>T. In addition, the results obtained for the 72 Japanese by this method were fully concordant with previous ones. Estimation of secretor status using this cost‐effective method may be useful in East and Southeast Asian populations.