Fish Give Clues to Human Skin Color Changes

HealthDay, December, 2007 by Robert Preidt

Research in the tiny stickleback fish could shed light on skin color changes in humans.

A team at Stanford University School of Medicine has spotted a gene that's responsible for color differences in both species.

such as skin color changes -- to be able to live in those new settings.

Kingsley and his colleagues compared DNA from lighter and darker sticklebacks and found that the lighter fish had mutations in a gene called Kit ligand. The researchers then analyzed DNA from people with different skin colors and found that those with lighter skin also had an altered form of the Kit ligand gene.

"It is the same genetic mechanism between organisms that are very different from each other," Kingsley said in a prepared statement.

The Kit ligand gene makes a...