What controls variation in human skin color?
Open accessAbstract
There is a large range of human skin color, yet we know very little about the underlying genetic architecture. Is the number of skin color genes close to five, 50, or 500?
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Human skin color is largely determined by two biological components, melanin and hemoglobin, and one major environmental component, exposure to UV light.
“Human skin color is largely determined by two biological components, melanin and hemoglobin, and one major environmental component, exposure to UV light.42”
From A Genomewide Association Study of Skin Pigmentation in a South Asian Population (2007) · cites this paper as [42]
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References 36 · Cited by 163
- Authors
- Barsh, G. S.
- Affiliations
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US)
- Corresponding author
- Barsh, Gregory S
- ORCID
- Barsh, Gregory S
- Venue
- PLoS Biology
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2003-10-13
- Volume
- 1
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- e27
- ISSN
- 1544-9173 (ISSN-L)
- 1545-7885
- PMC
- PMC212702
- OpenAlex
- W2067783184
- Cited by
- 163
- References
- 36
- Citations by year
- 2025: 9 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 2.19
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- correction (2003-12-22)
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- PLoS Biology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- 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
- human skin color, skin pigmentation, genetic architecture, genetic variation, melanin
- MeSH terms
- Alleles, Humans, Models, Genetic, Phenotype, Pigmentation, Skin, Skin Physiological Phenomena, Skin Pigmentation, Ultraviolet Rays, Genetic Variation
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