Science, Space and Technology News 2023
“We’re a step closer to laying a foundation for understanding where we came from, how color change occurs molecularly, and why skin color change is more associated with sun-induced melanoma in Europeans,” said co-corresponding author Keith C. Cheng, distinguished professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, of biochemistry and molecular biology, and of pharmacology at Penn State.
“After identifying the variant of the gene SLC24A5, the primary contributor to lighter skin color in Europeans in 2005, the next obvious question was: what about similar skin tones in Native Americans and East Asians?” said Cheng, who led the team that made this discovery. “Both populations are relatively light-skinned, but Europeans are at least 15 times more likely to get melanoma.
“A biological benefit of sunlight is vitamin D, which the body produces from UV exposure,” Ang said. “In places with lower UV rays, people with less melanin make better use of whatever exposure they have.” “This work confirms that separate genetic mechanisms were involved in the evolution of lighter skin in each of the human migration branches,” Cheng said.The work was more involved than simply testing genes, though, according to the researchers. The Kalinago people were, Cheng said, “rightfully guarded before generously participating in this work.”
“We earned a few small grants — including one from the Hershey Rotary Club — to buy medical equipment to donate,” Ang said. All humans have the same set of about 20,000 genes, but individuals carry different combinations of these genes, called alleles. Common combinations of gene alleles define a person’s ancestry — these are the maps that enable such genetic ancestry services as 23andMe to track individual ancestral history. Most alleles differ in subtle ways, such as the single letter change in SLC24A5 that is largely responsible for European peoples’ shared lighter skin color.
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