While scientists have probed the genetic basis of skin color before, most of those studies were done on Europeans. “When people think of skin color in Africa, most would think of darker skin,” Tishkoff says, “but we show that within Africa there is a huge amount of variation, ranging from skin as light as some Asians to the darkest skin on a global level and everything in between.” The findings, published in the journal Science, shed light on human evolution and inform knowledge about the genetic risk factors for conditions such as skin cancer.
With a new study of diverse African groups, a team of geneticists led by Sarah Tishkoff, a Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor and the David and Lyn Silfen University Professor in Genetics and Biology, has broadened and deepened an understanding of the genes that color human skin.
Skin color is one of humankind’s most striking-and stunningly variable-traits.
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