[Carter]

Carter asked the Naked Scientists:

You were discussing the ABO blood group system, explaining that types A & B dominate type O.  What about the Rhesus blood group system: does this dominate - or vice versa?  Are the inheritance rules for Rhesus blood group system the same as that for the ABO blood group system?  

Also, I listen to your podcast while taking my daily walk.  Are there any
kitchen experiments I can perform on this walk?

What do you think?

[RD]

A person either has Rhesus factor or not. This is generally indicated as + or -, and is often combined with blood type denomination. Rhesus (or the D antigen) is inherited on one locus, on the short arm of the first chromosome, 1p36.2-p34, with two alleles, of which Rh+ is dominant and Rh- is recessive. The Rhesus system is much more complex than the ABO blood type system because there are more than 30 combinations possible when inherited, however for general usage, the Rh proteins are grouped into two families - either positive or negative.

http://www.kromosoft.com/resources/KB/Abstracts/GeneticsOfRhesusFactor.php