Fucosyltransferase 2 gene (FUT2) gene plays an important role in control of enzymes that secrete blood type antigen substances. The mutation of FUT2 at nucleotide position 385 from A to T (A385T) combined with secretor phenotype is associated with proneness to infections by some pathogens, on comparing with the non secretor phenotype. The objective set was to study the prevalence of A385T mutation with secretor phenotype. Among 132 Southern Thai individuals, 18(13.6%) had Le(a+b-) phenotype and 5(3.8%) had Le(a-b-) non secretor phenotype with genotypes AA 6(26.0%), AT 13(56.5%) and TT 4(17.3%); whereas 109(82.6%) having Le(a-b+) phenotype and 7(5.3%) having a Le(a-b-) secretor phenotype had genotypes AA 42(31.8%), AT 50(37.9) and TT 10(7.5%). The frequencies of genotypes AA, AT and TT among 264 alleles examined in a sample of 132 Southern Thai individuals were 48, 70, and 14%, respectively, indicating a rather wide distribution of A385T in FUT2 gene in the Southern Thai population. The results show that the FUT2 gene really encodes the secretor enzyme α(1,2)fucosyltransferase and indicate an ethnic group-specific nonsense or missense point mutation in the FUT2 gene. This study provides substantial new information on the prevalence of the examined polymorphism.
