Re: Genes, Skin Color, Sex, and Europe Only?

Jois wrote:
>
> Gene That Determines Skin Color Is Discovered, Scientists Report
>
> By NICHOLAS WADE
> Published: December 16, 2005
> New York Times
>
> A gene that is responsible for the pale skin of Europeans and the dark skin
> of Africans has been discovered by scientists at Pennsylvania State
> University.
>
> The gene comes in two versions, one of which is found in 99 percent of
> Europeans and the other in 93 to 100 percent of Africans, the researchers
> report in today's issue of Science.
>
> The gene is unusual because with most human genes, different versions are
> generally shared, though one version may be more common in one race than
> another. One exception is the Duffy null allele, a version of a gene that
> prevents malaria, that is found almost exclusively in one race, sub-Saharan
> Africans.
>
> The new gene falls into the same category as the Duffy gene, and it may shed
> light on the evolutionary pressures to which Europeans were subjected as
> their ancestors, who were presumably dark skinned, moved into the northern
> latitudes some 40,000 years ago.
>
> Humans acquired dark skins in Africa about 1.5 million years ago to shield
> their newly hairless bodies from the sun. Its ultra-violet rays destroy

Huh? There's a "firm" date for this now?

> folic acid, a shortage of which leads to birth defects.
>
> But when the modern humans who left Africa began to live in northern
> latitudes, they needed more sunlight to penetrate the skin, to permit the
> chemical reaction that produces vitamin D.

Which means the dark skin came first and whites are sorta - what, mutants? ;)

This is gonna drive the bigots nuts.

> The new gene was first identified not in humans but in a mutant zebra fish,
> a small striped fish common in aquariums. The mutant fish are known as
> golden, because their stripes, usually black, are much paler and their
> bodies more yellow.
>
> Dr. Keith C. Cheng, an author of the report, and his colleagues showed that
> the golden version of the fish gene altered production of melanosomes, the
> tiny black particles of pigments that give skin its color.
>
> The researchers then found that in humans, who have their own form of the
> gene, the version common in Africans allowed larger melanosomes, which tend
> to clump together, whereas the version in Europeans produced smaller and
> more dispersed melanosomes.
>
> Asians have the same version of the gene as Africans, so they presumably
> acquired their light skin through the action of some other gene that affects
> skin color, said Dr. Cheng.
>
> Mark D. Shriver, another author of the article, said his laboratory was
> trying to assess when the European version of the gene became so common, as
> well its geographical origin.
>
> The intense selective pressure that drove the version to become universal in
> Europeans may have included sexual selection.
>
> "In Africa people are much darker than they need to be for UV protection, so
> to me that screams sexual selection," Dr. Shriver said. Black skin, in other
> words, may have been favored by men and women in sexual partners, just as
> pale skin may have been preferred in sexual partners among Europeans and
> Asians.
>
> ------------------------------------------
>
> Holy Cow! Wouldn't it be just as easy to say that "Europe Only" light
> skinned genes came from the Neanderthals?
>
> That African skin color is darker than it needs to be sounds pretty wierd.
> It isn't as if all Africans have the same depth of color.

Just a range of variation...

> No article sited? Not published yet?
.

Relevant Pages

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