Research into skin color yields important find about the role genetics plays

• With help from a common aquarium pet and a recently released online database of human genetic variation, a collaborative team of Penn State researchers has found what could be the most important skin color gene identified to date.
• The team, led by cancer geneticist Keith Cheng, M.D., Ph.D., a Jake Gittlen Cancer Research Foundation researcher in the Penn State Cancer Institute, at Penn State College of Medicine, Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, in collaboration with University Park anthropologist Mark Shriver, Ph.D., found that a change in just one amino acid in one gene plays a major role in determining why people of European descent have lighter skin than people of African descent.
• The find could lead to further research using the protein coded by the pigmentation gene as a target for treatment of malignant melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer, as well as to research on ways to modify skin color without damaging it by tanning or using harsh chemical lighteners.
• The pigmentation discovery was an unexpected offshoot of cancer research Cheng began a decade ago using zebrafish, a common aquarium pet that is widely used as a model organism for studying the genetics of development.
• In people of European descent, the melanosomes are fewer, smaller, and lighter than those from people of West African ancestry, while the melanosomes of East Asians show intermediate properties.
• The importance of the work extends beyond pigmentation, Cheng and Shriver say.
• Sexual selection occurs because individuals choose mates with certain characteristics that are more attractive or that indicate better reproductive potential.
• The National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Pennsylvania Tobacco Settlement Fund and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada supported portions of this research.