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A Single SNP in an Evolutionary Conserved Region within Intron 86 of the HERC2 Gene Determines Human Blue-Brown Eye Color
Open accessAbstract
We have previously demonstrated that haplotypes of three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the first intron of the OCA2 gene are extremely strongly associated with variation in human eye color. In the present work, we describe additional fine association mapping of eye color SNPs in the intergenic region upstream of OCA2 and within the neighboring HERC2 (hect domain and RLD2) gene. We screened an additional 92 SNPs in 300-3000 European individuals and found that a single SNP in intron 86 of HERC2, rs12913832, predicted eye color significantly better (ordinal logistic regression R(2) = 0.68, association LOD = 444) than our previous best OCA2 haplotype. Comparison of sequence alignments of multiple species showed that this SNP lies in the center of a short highly conserved sequence and that the blue-eye-associated allele (frequency 78%) breaks up this conserved sequence, part of which forms a consensus binding site for the helicase-like transcription factor (HLTF). We were also able to demonstrate the OCA2 R419Q, rs1800407, coding SNP acts as a penetrance modifier of this new HERC2 SNP for eye color, and somewhat independently, of melanoma risk. We conclude that the conserved region around rs12913832 represents a regulatory region controlling constitutive expression of OCA2 and that the C allele at rs12913832 leads to decreased expression of OCA2, particularly within iris melanocytes, which we postulate to be the ultimate cause of blue eye color.
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In the citing paper
“This eye color locus was later refined to a small region 50 kb upstream of OCA2 in an intron of the HERC2 gene [7], [8], [10].”
From Genetic Architecture of Skin and Eye Color in an African-European Admixed Population (2013) · cites this paper as [10]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredIn the citing paper
“Unlike for the MATP and NCKX5 proteins however, the SNP responsible for pigmentation variation is not located within the protein-coding region of the OCA2 gene, but rather within a putative regulatory region located within an upstream gene (rs12913832, Sturm et al., 2008).”
From Analysis of Cultured Human Melanocytes Based on Polymorphisms within the SLC45A2/MATP, SLC24A5/NCKX5, and OCA2/P Loci (2009) · cites this paper as Sturm et al., 2008
In the citing paper
“This is consistent with the predicted function for the conserved region surrounding the rs12913832 SNP acting as a locus control region for OCA2 (Sturm et al., 2008).”
From Analysis of Cultured Human Melanocytes Based on Polymorphisms within the SLC45A2/MATP, SLC24A5/NCKX5, and OCA2/P Loci (2009) · cites this paper as Sturm et al., 2008
In the citing paper
“Sturm et al. (2008) concluded that the derived allele of rs1800407 increased the penetrance of the blue eye phenotype associated with the derived allele of rs12913832.”
From A global view of the OCA2-HERC2 region and pigmentation (2012) · cites this paper as Sturm et al. 2008
In the citing paper
“In humans, it has been implicated in iris, skin, and hair pigmentation (Duffy et al. 2007; Sturm et al. 2008; Kayser et al. 2008; Sulem et al. 2007).”
From A global view of the OCA2-HERC2 region and pigmentation (2012) · cites this paper as Sturm et al. 2008
In the citing paper
“This association may explain the increased blue-eye penetrance seen by Sturm et al. (2008) as a type of ascertainment effect.”
From A global view of the OCA2-HERC2 region and pigmentation (2012) · cites this paper as Sturm et al. 2008
In the citing paper
“Several sites in and around OCA2 have been reported to be the functional variant or to be tightly linked to the functional variant leading to blue eyes. These sites include a three-SNP haplotype (rs4778138, rs4778241, rs7495174) and four individual SNPs, rs1129038, rs12913832, rs916977, and rs1667394 (Duffy et al. 2007; Sturm et al. 2008; Kayser et al. 2008; Sulem et al. 2007; Mengel-From et al. 2”
From A global view of the OCA2-HERC2 region and pigmentation (2012) · cites this paper as Sturm et al. 2008
In the citing paper
“The T allele of rs1800407 has also been associated with blue-eye penetrance (Sturm et al. 2008).”
From A global view of the OCA2-HERC2 region and pigmentation (2012) · cites this paper as Sturm et al. 2008
In the citing paper
“Sturm et al. (2008) reported that rs12913832 is associated with blue eyes.”
From A global view of the OCA2-HERC2 region and pigmentation (2012) · cites this paper as Sturm et al. 2008
In the citing paper
“We have shown that the TG allele of BEH2 has a much more restricted global distribution compared to the ACA allele of BEH1 and the CA allele of BEH3, the other two haplotypes published as associated with blue eyes”
From A global view of the OCA2-HERC2 region and pigmentation (2012) · cites this paper as Sturm et al. 2008
In the citing paper
“The derived allele (G) at rs12913832 is recessive and is associated with blue eye color.”
From Genome-Wide Association Studies of Quantitatively Measured Skin, Hair, and Eye Pigmentation in Four European Populations (2012) · cites this paper as [34]
In the citing paper
“rs1667394 is also in LD with rs12913832 (D’ = 1, r2 = 0.65), which was not genotyped in our study but is thought to be the likely causative variant for blue versus brown eye color by genetic and functional analyses [33], [34].”
From Genome-Wide Association Studies of Quantitatively Measured Skin, Hair, and Eye Pigmentation in Four European Populations (2012) · cites this paper as [34]
In the citing paper
“This correlation may result from the existence of shared or linked genetic determinants of multiple pigmentation phenotypes, such as rs12913832 in HERC2, which was shown to be very strongly associated with eye color but more weakly associated with hair color [9], [34].”
From Genome-Wide Association Studies of Quantitatively Measured Skin, Hair, and Eye Pigmentation in Four European Populations (2012) · cites this paper as [34]
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Citations
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Cartharius, K., Frech, K., Grote, K., Klocke, B., Haltmeier, M., Klingenhoff, A., Frisch, M., Bayerlein, M., & Werner, T. (2005) · Computer applications in the biosciences · doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/bti473 · Cited by 2,003
The Diploid Genome Sequence of an Individual Human
Levy, S., Sutton, G., Ng, P. C., Feuk, L., Halpern, A. L., Walenz, B. P., Axelrod, N., Huang, J., Kirkness, E. F., Denisov, G., et al. (2007) · PLoS Biology · doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0050254 · Cited by 1,778
Aligning Multiple Genomic Sequences With the Threaded Blockset Aligner
Blanchette, M., Kent, W. J., Riemer, C., Elnitski, L., Smit, A. F. A., Roskin, K. M., Baertsch, R., Rosenbloom, K., Clawson, H., Green, E. D., et al. (2004) · Genome Research · doi:10.1101/gr.1933104 · Cited by 1,452
MITF: master regulator of melanocyte development and melanoma oncogene
Levy, C., Khaled, M., & Fisher, D. E. (2006) · Trends in Molecular Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.molmed.2006.07.008 · Cited by 1,169
Genetic determinants of hair, eye and skin pigmentation in Europeans
Sulem, P., Gudbjartsson, D. F., Stacey, S. N., Helgason, A., Rafnar, T., Magnusson, K. P., Manolescu, A., Karason, A., Palsson, A., Thorleifsson, G., et al. (2007) · Nature Genetics · doi:10.1038/ng.2007.13 · Cited by 750
Research works printed but not linked: 1
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Genome-wide patterns of selection in 230 ancient Eurasians
Mathieson, I., Lazaridis, I., Rohland, N., Mallick, S., Patterson, N., Roodenberg, S. A., Harney, E., Stewardson, K., Fernandes, D., Novak, M., et al. (2015) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature16152 · Cited by 1,515
Physiological functions of the HECT family of ubiquitin ligases
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The genetic history of Ice Age Europe
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Metadata
- Authors
- Sturm, R. A., Duffy, D. L., Zhao, Z. Z., Leite, F. P. N., Stark, M. S., Hayward, N. K., Martin, N. G., & Montgomery, G. W.
- Affiliations
- The University of Queensland (AU)
- QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Montgomery, Grant W.
- ORCID
- Venue
- The American Journal of Human Genetics
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2008-02
- Volume
- 82
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 424-431
- ISSN
- 0002-9297 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC2427173
- OpenAlex
- W2160460000
- Cited by
- 378
- References
- 54
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 20 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 19 · 2018: 24 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 18 · 2015: 21 · 2014: 23 · 2013: 29 · 2012: 26
- FWCI
- 12.97
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- The American Journal of Human Genetics (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Cancer Institute (R01CA088363, CA88363)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cell Biology › melanin and skin pigmentation
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic Associations and Epidemiology
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic Mapping and Diversity in Plants and Animals
- Keywords
- eye color, HERC2, OCA2, single nucleotide polymorphisms, blue eyes, conserved sequences, HLTF, transcriptional regulation, melanogenesis, melanoma risk, fine mapping
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Base Sequence, Chromosome Mapping, DNA-Binding Proteins, Eye Color, Gene Expression Regulation, Gene Frequency, Genotype, Humans, Introns, Lod Score, Molecular Sequence Data, Transcription Factors, Twins, Sequence Alignment, Conserved Sequence, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factors, Membrane Transport Proteins, Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases
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