Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Norton, Heather L.
• Kittles, Rick A.
• Parra, Esteban
• McKeigue, Paul
• Mao, Xianyun
• Cheng, Keith
• Canfield, Victor A.
• Bradley, Daniel G.
• McEvoy, Brian
• Shriver, Mark D.

Titel

Genetic Evidence for the Convergent Evolution of Light Skin in Europeans and East Asians

Ist Teil von

• Molecular biology and evolution, 2007-03, Vol.24 (3), p.710-722

Ort / Verlag

United States: Oxford University Press

Erscheinungsjahr

2007

Quelle

Oxford Journals 2020 Medicine

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Human skin pigmentation shows a strong positive correlation with ultraviolet radiation intensity, suggesting that variation in skin color is, at least partially, due to adaptation via natural selection. We investigated the evolution of pigmentation variation by testing for the presence of positive directional selection in 6 pigmentation genes using an empirical F ST approach, through an examination of global diversity patterns of these genes in the Centre d'Etude du Polymorphisme Humain (CEPH)-Diversity Panel, and by exploring signatures of selection in data from the International HapMap project. Additionally, we demonstrated a role for MATP in determining normal skin pigmentation variation using admixture mapping methods. Taken together (with the results of previous admixture mapping studies), these results point to the importance of several genes in shaping the pigmentation phenotype and a complex evolutionary history involving strong selection. Polymorphisms in 2 genes, ASIP and OCA2, may play a shared role in shaping light and dark pigmentation across the globe, whereas SLC24A5, MATP, and TYR have a predominant role in the evolution of light skin in Europeans but not in East Asians. These findings support a case for the recent convergent evolution of a lighter pigmentation phenotype in Europeans and East Asians.