Close X
Friday, November 29, 2024
ADVT 
Health

Blonde or Brunette - single DNA change can decide hair colour

Darpan News Desk Darpan, 02 Jun, 2014 01:33 PM
  • Blonde or Brunette - single DNA change can decide hair colour
To get a blonde look, you soon may not need to visit a hair clinic or a specialist barber. A single-letter change in the genetic code is enough to generate blonde hair in humans, fascinating research shows.
 
In a first, the study outlines how tiny DNA changes can reverberate through our genome in ways that may affect evolution, migration and even human history.
 
"This particular genetic variation in humans is associated with blonde hair, but it is not associated with eye colour or other pigmentation traits," said David Kingsley from Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) at Stanford University.
 
According to Kingsley, a handful of genes likely determine hair colour in humans.
 
For over a decade, Kingsley studied the three-spined stickleback, a small fish whose marine ancestors began to colonise lakes and streams at the end of the last Ice Age.
 
The researchers found that the blonde hair commonly seen in northern Europeans is caused by a single change in the DNA that regulates the expression of a gene named Kit ligand.
 
"The very same gene that we found controlling skin colour in fish showed one of the strongest signatures of selection in different human populations around the world," Kingsley explained.
 
Kit ligand encodes a protein that aids the development of pigment-producing cells.
 
"So it made sense that changing its activity could affect hair or skin colour," researchers said.
 
Catherine Guenther, an HHMI research specialist in Kingsley's lab, began experiments to search for regulatory switches that might specifically control hair colour.
 
"When we found the hair follicle switch, we could then ask what is different between blondes and brunettes in northern Europe," Kingsley said.
 
Examining the DNA in that regulatory segment, they found a single letter of genetic code that differed between individuals with different hair colours.
 
"Given Kit ligand's range of activities throughout the body, many such regulatory elements are likely scattered throughout the DNA that surrounds the gene. We think the genome is littered with switches," Kingsley emphasised.
 
It is clear that this hair colour change is occurring through a regulatory mechanism that operates only in the hair.
 
"This is not something that also affects other traits, like intelligence or personality. The change that causes blonde hair is, literally, only skin deep," Kingsley added.
 
The study was published in the journal Nature Genetics.

MORE Health ARTICLES

Lose weight and liven up your sex life

Lose weight and liven up your sex life
It is time to run, jog, join the gym, hit the park or just begin walking to tuck in your tummy as losing even a moderate amount of weight can help improve your sex life.

Lose weight and liven up your sex life

Exercise To Quit Tobacco

Exercise To Quit Tobacco
If you are looking to ditch tobacco, make sure you include at least 15-20 minutes of physical exercise each day to maintain unwavering focus on quitting, a fitness expert said Saturday on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day.

Exercise To Quit Tobacco

Want to maintain slim waistline? Eat prunes

Want to maintain slim waistline? Eat prunes
Losing weight is one thing and maintaining that slim figure is quite another as most overweight people tend to regain the lost weight soon - unless you are in love with prunes!

Want to maintain slim waistline? Eat prunes

Workplace ostracism more damaging than bullying

Workplace ostracism more damaging than bullying
If your colleagues give you the cold shoulder at work, this can not only make your urge to quit the job stronger but also do more harm to your health than bullying.

Workplace ostracism more damaging than bullying

Antarctic ice began melting earlier than thought

Antarctic ice began melting earlier than thought
Coming on the heels of recent studies that suggest destabilisation of part of the West Antarctic ice sheet has begun, a study shows that the Antarctic ice sheet began melting about 5,000 years earlier than previously thought - at the end of last ice age.

Antarctic ice began melting earlier than thought

High-status women use 'slut discourse' to enjoy Sex better

High-status women use 'slut discourse' to enjoy Sex better
This may not go down well with some but high-status women from affluent families define themselves as classy compared to other women whom they view as trashy or slutty, a significant study has revealed.

High-status women use 'slut discourse' to enjoy Sex better