The estimation of blood group gene frequencies: a note on the allocation method.

The principles for estimating gene frequencies in complex blood group systems by the allocation method are discussed. This numerical method is simpler than the maximum likelihood method, but gives the same estimate. It is shown that there are some cases in which the application of a previous description of the method gives incorrect results. The principles are discussed for how family information may be included in the estimation process in order to obtain more precise estimates.