A Melanocortin 1 Receptor Allele Suggests Varying Pigmentation Among Neanderthals
@article{LaluezaFox2007AM1, title={A Melanocortin 1 Receptor Allele Suggests Varying Pigmentation Among Neanderthals}, author={Carles Lalueza-Fox and Holger R{\"o}mpler and David Caramelli and Claudia St{\"a}ubert and Giulio Catalano and David A. Hughes and Nadin Rohland and Elena Pilli and Laura Longo and Silvana Condemi and Marco de la Rasilla and Javier Fortea and Antonio Rosas and Mark Stoneking and Torsten Sch{\"o}neberg and Jaume Bertranpetit and Michael Hofreiter}, journal={Science}, year={2007}, volume={318}, pages={1453 - 1455} }
The melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) regulates pigmentation in humans and other vertebrates. Variants of MC1R with reduced function are associated with pale skin color and red hair in humans of primarily European origin. We amplified and sequenced a fragment of the MC1R gene (mc1r) from two Neanderthal remains. Both specimens have a mutation that was not found in ∼3700 modern humans analyzed. Functional analyses show that this variant reduces MC1R activity to a level that alters hair and/or skin…
278 Citations
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