A golden clue to human skin colour variation

Reference:

Muller, J. and Kelsh, R. N., 2006. A golden clue to human skin colour variation. Bioessays, 28 (6), pp. 578-582.

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Official URL:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/bies.20409

Abstract

Variations in human skin pigmentation are obvious, but how have skin colour differences evolved? Although clearly a polymorphic trait, the number and identity of key variants has remained unclear. Investigation of pigmentation phenotypes in model organisms provides a route to identify these genes and showed MC1R to be one key locus. Now, cloning of a classic zebrafish mutant, golden, identifies slc24a5 as a gene involved in fish skin pigmentation.((1)) Strikingly this study identifies the human orthologue, SLC24A5, as likely to make a major contribution to the pale skin colouration of Western Europeans.

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