When was our skin color changed?

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K14823
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Applied anthropology
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Ohashi Jun 東京大学, 大学院理学系研究科(理学部), 准教授 (80301141)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 皮膚色 / 進化 / 自然選択 / アジア

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Human skin color is one of the most differentiated traits that have evolved to adapt to the environment. After out of Africa, the skin color of East Asians has changed lighter, but the Melanesian people has maintained darker skin color similar to that of Africans. East Asians and Melanesians are considered to have split 30-40 thousands years ago. However, the evolutionary process that has produced such a difference in just tens of thousands of years is not well understood. In this study, polymorphisms associated with skin color were investigated in Thai and Melanesian populations, and the process of change in skin color was discussed based on the change in allele frequencies.

Free Research Field

ヒト進化遺伝学