News in Brief Genetics

How a genetic quirk makes hair naturally blond

Enhancer DNA controls pigment gene from afar

BASIS FOR BLONDNESS  Some people’s blond hair is due to a genetic variant located far from any gene. The variant affects activity of a gene that helps control pigmentation. 

jc_design/istock photo

By Tina Hesman Saey

- More than 2 years ago

Some Europeans have enhancers that make them blond. In this case, the enhancer isn’t a hair dye, but a genetic variation that controls pigment production in hair follicles, David Kingsley, an evolutionary geneticist at Stanford University and colleagues report June 1 in Nature Genetics.