Scientists Find A DNA Change That Accounts For White Skin By Rick Weiss Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, December 16, 2005 Scientists said yesterday that they have discovered a tiny genetic mutation that largely explains the first appearance of white skin in humans tens of thousands of years ago, a finding that helps solve one of biology's most enduring mysteries and illuminates one of humanity's greatest sources of strife. The work suggests that the skin-whitening mutation occurred by chance in a single individual after the first human exodus from Africa, when all people were brown-skinned. That person's offspring apparently thrived as humans moved northward into what is now Europe, helping to give rise to the lightest of the world's races.... ....A few genes have previously been associated with human pigment disorders -- most notably those that, when mutated, lead to albinism, an extreme form of pigment loss. But the newly found glitch is the first found to play a role in the formation of "normal" white skin. The Penn State team calculates that the gene, known as slc24a5, is responsible for about one-third of the pigment loss that made black skin white. A few other as-yet-unidentified mutated genes apparently account for the rest..... COMPLETE HERE: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/15/AR2005121501728.html
Thread discussion for those interested in the above posted link source and information: Scientists Find A DNA Change That Accounts For White Skin Discussion in 'Black People Open Forum' started by Aljahiz, Jul 31, 2007. http://destee.com/index.php?threads...n-is-a-dna-mutation.47345/page-20#post-754725