Latitudinal Clines of the Human Vitamin D Receptor and Skin Color Genes.

ABSTRACT: The well-documented latitudinal clines of genes affecting human skin color presumably arise from the need for protection from intense ultraviolet radiation (UVR) vs. the need to use UVR for vitamin D synthesis. Sampling 751 subjects from a broad range of latitudes and skin colors, we investigated possible multilocus correlated adaptation of skin color genes with the vitamin D receptor gene (VDR), using a vector correlation metric and network method called BlocBuster. We discovered two multilocus networks involving VDR promoter and skin color genes that display strong latitudinal clines as multilocus networks, even though many of their single gene components do not. Considered one by one, the VDR components of these networks show diverse patterns: no cline, a weak declining latitudinal clin

SUBMITTER: Tiosano D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4856077 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature