Analysis of G6PD enzyme deficiency in Saudi population

The evolutionary conservation of a housekeeping gene such as G6PD is greater than that of tissue-specific genes, presumablybecause the latter may require more specific adaptation to the physiology of individual organisms. The abundance of distinctmutation sites and their clinical manifestations make G6PD ideal for structure-function analysis. Therefore, it is of interest to screenof G6PD deficiency in the blood donors in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We report the mean and variation of enzyme activity in ahuge set of Suadi to non-Saudi population with reference to the entire population. The sequence level conservation of G6PD amongdistant species is demonstrated using phylogenetic trees. These observations have implications in the sequence-structure-functionunderstanding of G6PD with reference to its association to several human diseases.