Genotype of thalassemia genes and the polymorphism of β- globin gene in Cantonese

To understand the genotype of α and β-globin, as well as the polymorphism of β-globin gene in Cantonese in recent years, and to provide an effective genetic diagnosis for thalassemia (thal). The single-tube complex PCR was used to detect 3 types of deletional α-thal, reverse dot blotting (RDB)/PCR to detect 3 kinds of undeletional α-thal-αCS, αQS, αWSand 18 kinds of β-thal mutations which were common in Chinese population. A total of 454 cases from Guangdong were undergone thal genotype genetic diagnosis. Among the 454 cases, 142 cases were selected to perform the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) analysis of β- globin gene by denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC)combining the whole gene sequencing. Of the 454 cases, 438 were diagnosed as thalassemia, including 246 of α-thal, 164 of β-thal and 28 of αβ-thal. In 246 α-thal cases, deletions were the dominant mutations, including 197 cases of αα/--(SEA), 20 of αα/-α(3.7) and 9 of αα/-α(4.2). In 164 β- thal cases, heterozygotes accounted