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Hair, eye, and skin color make up one of the most varied and visually accessible human phenotypes. The genetic bases of human pigmentation remain largely unknown. The geographic distribution of variations in skin pigmentation is thought to reflect adaptation to latitude-dependent levels of ultraviolet radiation, but the physiologic roles of hair and eye color are unexplained. Population geneticists in Iceland performed a genome-wide association study scan using 317,511 SNPs from 2986 Icelanders to identify the genetic variants that influence normal pigmentation.
The researchers identified 60 pigmentation-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) clustered along five chromosomes in regions with strong pigmentation gene candidates, inc…