MessageToEagle.com – Exploring our ancient past is a complex and time-demanding task.
Scientists now think they have found the answer to why so many Irish people have very light skin.
Apparently, Europeans’ light skin stems from a gene mutation from a single person who lived 10,000 years ago! Researchers at the Penn State University reached this conclusion after conducting a major study.
While the genetics of skin color is largely unclear, past research using zebrafish by the College of Medicine’s Keith Cheng identified a key gene
that contributes to lighter skin color in Europeans and differs from West Africans.
The interesting part is that gene SLC24A5 is a key contributor to the skin color difference between Europeans and West Africans.
This is undoubtedly where the Irish get their light skin from.
See also:
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“The mutation in SLC24A5 changes just one building block in the protein, and contributes about a third of the visually striking differences in skin tone between peoples of African and European ancestry,” said Cheng, Distinguished Professor of Pathology.
Lighter skin color may have provided an advantage due to for the better creation of vitamin D in the lesser sunlight characteristic of northern latitudes.
According to Irish Central “Cheng and his team studied segments of genetic code that have a mutation and are located closely on the same chromosome and are often inherited together.
The mutation, called A111T, is found in virtually everyone of European ancestry.
A111T is also found in populations in the Middle East and Indian subcontinent, but not in high numbers in Africans.
All individuals from the Middle East, North Africa, East Africa and South India who carry the A111T mutation share traces of the ancestral genetic code. According to the researchers, this indicates that all existing instances of this mutation originate from the same person.
The pattern of people with this lighter skin color mutation suggests that the A111T mutation occurred somewhere between the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent.
‘This means that Middle Easterners and South Indians, which includes most inhabitants of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, share significant ancestry,’ Professor Cheng said.
Professor Cheng now plans to look at more genetic samples to better understand what role genes play in East Asian skin color.”
It would be interesting to learn more about the red-hair gene is most common in Irish blood.
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