Objective  To investigate gene frequency of MNS and Mur blood group system in Li ethnic group in Hainan province and the differences in the genes′ distribution compared to other ethnic groups for providing references to the establishment of rare blood group bank and clinical blood transfusion.

  Methods  The study was conducted in Limu Mountain area of Qiongzhong county in Hainan province during January 2020 and the voluntary participants were 300 permanent residents (180 males and 120 females aged 18 – 60 years) being Li nationality within three generations and without serious diseases and familial genetic diseases. Venous blood samples (3 – 5 ml for each sample) were collected from all the participants. MNS and Mur blood group alleles were detected and genotyped with sequence-specific primer polymerase chain reaction (SSP-PCR) and the gene frequencies were analyzed and compared with other ethnic groups in China.

  Results  The number of participants with various phenotypes of MNS blood group were 199 for MM, 93 for MN, 8 for NN, 1 for SS, 15 for Ss, and 284 for ss; the allele frequencies were 0.8183 for M, 0.1817 for N, 0.0283 for S, and 0.9717 for s, respectively. The participants′ distributions of MNS blood group allele frequencies were significantly different from those of Han ethnic groups in Yueyang city of Hunan province/Chengdu city of Sichuan province/Yuncheng city of Shanxi province, Hui/Uygur/Kazak ethnic groups in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Tibetan ethnic group in Tibet Autonomous Region, and Yi ethnic group in Sichuan province (P < 0.01 for all). The number of participants with various phenotypes of Mur blood group were 173 for Mur ⁺ , 127 for Mur ^–, with the allele frequencies of 0.5767 for Mur ⁺ and 0.4233 for Mur ^–; the participants′ Mur blood group allele frequencies were significantly different from those of Han ethnic groups in Shanghai city/Xi′an city of Shanxi province/Panyu city of Guangdong province/Sichuan province/Yueyang city of Hunan province and Man ethnic group in Harbin city of Heilongjiang province (P < 0.001 for all). The antigen incompatibility rates of M/N and S/s were 25.76% and 5.35%, respectively.

  Conclusion  The genetic status of MNS and Mur blood group system genes remains relatively stable in Li ethnic group in Hainan province. The gene frequencies of MNS blood group system are polymorphic, and the frequency of Mur blood group positive gene is higher, indicating unique ethnic distribution characteristics compared with that in other ethnic groups in China.