From Irish Central. Com
Have
you ever wondered where the Irish get their light skin color from? Well, it
appears we may now have the answer.
A
major new US study at Penn State University has found that Europeans' light
skin stems from a gene mutation from a single person who lived 10,000 years
ago.
Scientists
made the discovery after identifying a key gene that contributes to lighter
skin color in Europeans, and the Irish fall into this category.
The
Mail Online reports that, in earlier research, Keith Cheng from Penn State
College of Medicine reported that one amino acid difference in the 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.
"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," he said.
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. Perhaps he will take a look into where
Irish redheads come from after this.