Linkage and association scan for tanning ability in an isolated Mongolian population

摘要

Tanning ability is important, because it represents the ability of the skin to protect itself against ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Here, we sought to determine genetic regions associated with tanning ability. Skin pigmentation was measured at the outer forearm and buttock areas to represent facultative and constitutive skin color, respectively. In our study population consisting of iso-lated Mongolian subjects, with common histories of environ-mental UV exposure during their nomadic life, facultative skin color adjusted by constitutive skin color was used to indicate tanning ability. Through linkage analysis and family-based as-sociation tests of 345 Mongolian subjects, we identified 2 po-tential linkage regions regulating tanning ability on 5q35.3 and 12q13.2, having 6 and 7 significant single nucleotide poly-morphisms (SNPs), respectively. Those significant SNPs were located in or adjacent to potential candidate genes related to tanning ability: GRM6, ATF1, WNT1, and SILV/Pmel17.