Genetics of eye colours in different rural populations on the Silk Road

Eur J Hum Genet. 2013 Nov;21(11):1320-3. doi: 10.1038/ejhg.2013.41. Epub 2013 Mar 13.

Abstract

Eye colour is a highly transmissible and discernible trait in humans. A genome-wide association scan for variants associated to eye pigmentation was carried out on a large group of individuals coming from the Silk Road. Significant associations were detected not only with HERC2 (P-value=4.99 × 10(-37)) and OCA2 (P-value=4.51 × 10(-9)) genes but also with CTNNA2 gene (P-value=4.06 × 10(-8)). Moreover, the multifactor dimensionality reduction analysis clearly showed the effect of HERC2 haplotype over OCA2 mostly associated with SNP, thus enabling a highly accurate eye-colour prediction. Finally, the regression tree analysis showed that individuals carrying a given combination of haplotypes have a significant probability to show a blue or green/grey iris colour as compared with brown, with a gradient from west to east.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Asia
  • Child
  • Europe
  • Eye Color / genetics*
  • Genome-Wide Association Study
  • Humans
  • Middle Aged
  • Multifactor Dimensionality Reduction
  • Regression Analysis
  • Rural Population*
  • Young Adult