Fish Gene Helps Explain Human Coloration
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
A little striped fish has helped scientists begin to solve one of the biggest mysteries in biology: which genes are responsible for differences in the color of humans’ skin, eyes and hair.
The international team of scientists reported in Friday’s issue of the journal Science that they had found a gene, SLC24A5, that makes some African zebra fish paler than others. The team says the same gene helps explain why many Europeans have light-colored hair, skin and eyes.
They say that just a tiny change in a single amino acid is a major cause of the distinctive coloring.
They emphasize that they have not found a genetic basis for race.
