Abstract

Pigmentation variation is one of the most striking aspects of human morphologic diversity. Genomic regions associated with skin, eye and hair colour have geographic patterns that correlate with the distribution of the pigmentation traits and show some of the strongest signals of selection in the human genome, indicating the importance of pigmentation throughout human evolution. Dr. Beleza will talk about pigmentation in European and European-African descended populations. She will focus on a genome-wide association study of skin and eye colour in the European-African admixed Cape Verdean population, in which extensive phenotypic variation is observed. The results of this study indicate a common genetic basis for skin and eye colour and provide some understanding about the complex evolution of pigmentation traits in human populations.