生命科学学院2016年度春季学期学术系列讲座之三

题目：Genetic mechanism of human skin color evolution

讲座人：宿兵，博士

中国科学院昆明动物所研究员

时间：2016年3月25日，13:00-14:30

地点：北京大学生命科学学院邓祐才报告厅

联系人：陆剑

摘要：

Skin lightening among Eurasians is thought to have been a convergence occurring independently in Europe and East Asia as an adaptation to high latitude environments. Among Europeans, several genes responsible for such lightening have been found, but the information available for East Asians is much more limited. Here, a genome-wide comparison between dark-skinned Africans and Austro-Asiatic speaking aborigines and light-skinned northern Han Chinese identified the pigmentation gene OCA2, showing unusually deep allelic divergence between these groups. An amino acid substitution (His615Arg) of OCA2 prevalent in most East Asian populations—but absent in Africans and Europeans—was significantly associated with skin lightening among northern Han Chinese. Further transgenic and targeted gene modification analyses of zebrafish and mouse both exhibited the phenotypic effect of the OCA2 variant manifesting decreased melanin production. These results indicate that OCA2 plays an important role in the convergent skin lightening of East Asians during recent human evolution.

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