HBA1 and thalassemia: On the other hand, the deletion of a pentanucleotide (TGAGG) located at the 5’ end of the HBA2 gene IVS-I (aHpHIa), a point mutation at the initiation codon (ATG-ACG) of the HBA2 gene (αNcoIα), as well as a point mutation (ATG-GTG) in the HBA1 gene (ααNcoI), are the most common non-deletional mutations of α-thalassemia in the Mediterranean region (Higgs et al., 1989; Foglietta et al., 1996; Kattamis et al., 1996; Steinberg et al., 2001).