The Island Of The Blond Children
Children from Melanesia’s Solomon Islands have dark skin and beautiful natural blond hair. Their hair normally darkens as they become older.
The reason why Solomon Islands children are blond has been the subject of much conjecture. Excessive sun exposure and a fish-based diet are linked to the majority of ideas. Sean Myles, a geneticist from Nova Scotia Agricultural College in Canada, did a genomic investigation to find the answer.
According to a new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine, the regular incidence of blond hair among the Solomon Islands’ dark-skinned indigenous people is attributable to a domestic genetic mutation separate from the gene that causes blond hair in Europeans.
GENETIC ANALYSIS
Myles obtained saliva and hair samples from 1209 Melanesians in the Solomon Islands to explain why Solomon Islanders had blond hair. He compared 42 brown-haired Melanesians to 43 blonde Melanesians on the island and discovered that the blond Melanesians had two copies of a mutant gene found in 26% of the islanders.
Melanesians, it turns out, have a native TYRP1 gene that contributes to their melanin and distinctive hair color, which is more common in youngsters and darkens with age. TYRP1 is a protein that is related to tyrosinase, an enzyme that has been linked to pigmentation in mice and humans.
Further research indicated that the gene responsible for blond hair in the Solomon Islands is not found in the European genome. This suggests that the human trait of blond hair evolved separately in Oceania’s tropical region, which experts find both surprising and fascinating.
Blond hair is uncommon throughout the world, with significant populations only in northern Europe and Oceania, which includes the Solomon Islands and its neighbors. “It occurs between 5 and 10% of the time in the Solomon Islands, which is approximately the same as where I grew up,” said Eimear Kenny, PhD, a co-first author who was born in Ireland.
Many people assumed Melanesia’s blond hair was the consequence of gene flow, a feature transmitted down by European explorers, traders, and other visitors in previous centuries. According to co-senior author Sean Myles, PhD, a former Stanford postdoctoral fellow who is now an assistant professor at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College, the islanders themselves provide numerous probable explanations for its presence. They usually attributed it to sun exposure or a fish-rich diet, he said.
Curated By Gerluxe
