Genetics of Hair and Skin Color

[Allenson]

Interesting article:

http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/....110801.143233

[Tore]

It seems that the article require access, unfortunately.

[Allenson]

It seems that the article require access, unfortunately.

Hmmm, I must be able to access it because I am at a college library.

I'll see if I can store it at the SNPA/NEA Yahoo group site.

[Allenson]

Hmmm, I must be able to access it because I am at a college library.

I'll see if I can store it at the SNPA/NEA Yahoo group site.

Yup, it's there now. I called it "hairskin" and it's a PDF.

[Tore]

Thanks, dalonord!

[Euclides]

Annu Rev Genet. 2003;37:67-90.


Genetics of hair and skin color.

Rees JL.

Systems Group, Dermatology, University of Edinburgh, Lauriston Buildings, Lauriston Place, Edinburgh, EH3 9YW, United Kingdom. jrees@staffmail.ed.ac.uk

Differences in skin and hair color are principally genetically determined and are due to variation in the amount, type, and packaging of melanin polymers produced by melanocytes secreted into keratinocytes. Pigmentary phenotype is genetically complex and at a physiological level complicated. Genes determining a number of rare Mendelian disorders of pigmentation such as albinism have been identified, but only one gene, the melanocortin 1 receptor (MCR1), has so far been identified to explain variation in the normal population such as that leading to red hair, freckling, and sun-sensitivity. Genotype-phenotype relations of the MC1R are reviewed, as well as methods to improve the phenotypic assessment of human pigmentary status. It is argued that given advances in model systems, increases in technical facility, and the lower cost of genotype assessment, the lack of standardized phenotype assessment is now a major limit on advance.

[William Booth]

Shouldn't this information go hand in hand with racial subtypes and the like?

[Siegfried]

Shouldn't this information go hand in hand with racial subtypes and the like?

Pigmentation of the hair and of the iris ranges from dark brown to blonde and from brown to blue, respectively, in all European strains, but the frequencies differ; Nordic types have an increased frequency of hair blondism, but that doesn't mean a brunette can't be Nordic, or that every blonde person is.
Hair texture is also racially differentiated, but I'm not sure significant differences can be observed between the European races.

Caucasoid hair:


Mongoloid hair:


Negroid hair:


Coon's pigmentation map of Europe: