Researchers Find Clues to Gene for Red Hair, Quick Sunburn

Scientists have identified a gene that gives people red hair plus fair skin that sunburns easily, the first finding of a gene for any hair color.

The gene plays a key role in the body’s production of pigment called melanin in their hair and skin. Melanin comes in a brown-black form that protects against sunburn by allowing suntanning, and a yellow-red form that may contribute to sunburn and skin cancer risk.

The yellow-red form is unusually prominent in the hair and skin of people with red hair, said researchers from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in England and Western General Hospital in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Particular variants of the gene may encourage production of the yellow-red melanin at the expense of the brown-black version, the study suggests. The work appears in the November issue of the journal Nature Genetics.

The researchers inspected the gene in British and Irish volunteers with different shades of red hair and a propensity to sunburn. They found that 21 of the 30 volunteers had variant versions of the gene, while no variations were found in 30 other volunteers with brown or black hair and who tan easily.

In 75 other people, the scientists found that the more sunburn-prone a person’s skin, the more likely they were to have a variant version of the gene. And variants were much more common in people with light red or deep red hair than in blonds, brunettes or those with auburn hair.

“It certainly is a major and maybe the major gene for red hair,” said Dr. Richard Spritz of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, who said it was the first time a specific gene had been associated with hair color in people.

But other biological factors also play a role in whether somebody becomes a redhead, said Spritz, who is an expert on pigmentation in people.