SnakeBoy
07-08-2014, 07:55 PM
Red hair is all set to disappear — thanks to climate change
LONDON: Hair colour of humans now have a new enemy - climate change.
Scientists working with human DNA have predicted that the red hair gene, synonymous to UK and Scotland, will soon disappear.
Dr Alistair Moffat of Scotland has said that a gene mutation that yields red hair and pale skin which is more sensitive to light leaves DNA in skill cells more prone to sun damage and cancer.
Only 1-2% of the world's population have red hair, though in Scotland 13% of the population are ginger and 40% are thought to carry the gene.
Rising temperatures — a direct result of climate change will cause it to regress.
Dr Moffat said, "We think red hair in Scotland, Ireland and in the North of England is adaption to the climate. I think the reason for light skin and red hair is that we do not get enough sun and we have to get all the Vitamin D we can. If the climate is changing and it is to become more cloudy or less cloudy then this will affect the gene. If it was to get less cloudy and there was more sun, then yes, there would be fewer people carrying the gene."
Why does Britain and Ireland have so many carriers and red-heads? One hypothesis is linked to vitamin D. Red hair and lighter skin tone are related and in an archipelago where the sun shines less than in continental Europe, we can absorb more because of that. But if that were true then the cloudier parts of Britain and Ireland, in the west, would have the highest percentages.
ScotlandsDNA recently announced the result of a year-long project to discover how red-headed Britain and Ireland are. They have also published the first ever map of the red-headed nations and regions.
It is based on recent ancestral data, the origins of the grandparents of 2,343 people.
"Our sample consisted of people with all four grandparents from either England, Scotland, Wales or Ireland. While some will have a few deeper ancestors from elsewhere, it is fair to assume that most of the genetic variants carried by someone with all four grandparents from Scotland are Scottish, including the red-head variants in the MC1R gene," Dr Moffat said.
Since red hair is recessive, children born with red hair need both parents to be carriers of one of the red hair gene variants. But millions of people in Britain and Ireland have no idea that they are carriers.
If both parents are carriers of a red hair gene variant, there is a 25% chance that their offspring will have red hair. This is called recessive inheritance. Everyone who carries one of the variants is a direct descendant of the first person ever to have it.
The most red-headed part of Britain and Ireland is the South-East of Scotland with Edinburgh as a red-hotspot. 40% carry one of the three common red hair gene variants.
Scotland as whole has a higher percentage than Ireland, 36.5% as against 34.7%.
Wales is higher than Ireland with 38% - so some preconceptions of the Irish as the most red-headed nation are being reorganized.
The number of people is Britain and Ireland who are carriers is very large indeed.
"We estimate a total of 20.4 million people are carriers of the red hair variants. That should help play down ginger jibes. The percentage of red heads is lower but also varies, with about 6% of Scots having red hair, about 300,000. About 4% of English are red-heads, around 2.1 million people.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/Red-hair-is-all-set-to-disappear-thanks-to-climate-change/articleshow/38019833.cms
LONDON: Hair colour of humans now have a new enemy - climate change.
Scientists working with human DNA have predicted that the red hair gene, synonymous to UK and Scotland, will soon disappear.
Dr Alistair Moffat of Scotland has said that a gene mutation that yields red hair and pale skin which is more sensitive to light leaves DNA in skill cells more prone to sun damage and cancer.
Only 1-2% of the world's population have red hair, though in Scotland 13% of the population are ginger and 40% are thought to carry the gene.
Rising temperatures — a direct result of climate change will cause it to regress.
Dr Moffat said, "We think red hair in Scotland, Ireland and in the North of England is adaption to the climate. I think the reason for light skin and red hair is that we do not get enough sun and we have to get all the Vitamin D we can. If the climate is changing and it is to become more cloudy or less cloudy then this will affect the gene. If it was to get less cloudy and there was more sun, then yes, there would be fewer people carrying the gene."
Why does Britain and Ireland have so many carriers and red-heads? One hypothesis is linked to vitamin D. Red hair and lighter skin tone are related and in an archipelago where the sun shines less than in continental Europe, we can absorb more because of that. But if that were true then the cloudier parts of Britain and Ireland, in the west, would have the highest percentages.
ScotlandsDNA recently announced the result of a year-long project to discover how red-headed Britain and Ireland are. They have also published the first ever map of the red-headed nations and regions.
It is based on recent ancestral data, the origins of the grandparents of 2,343 people.
"Our sample consisted of people with all four grandparents from either England, Scotland, Wales or Ireland. While some will have a few deeper ancestors from elsewhere, it is fair to assume that most of the genetic variants carried by someone with all four grandparents from Scotland are Scottish, including the red-head variants in the MC1R gene," Dr Moffat said.
Since red hair is recessive, children born with red hair need both parents to be carriers of one of the red hair gene variants. But millions of people in Britain and Ireland have no idea that they are carriers.
If both parents are carriers of a red hair gene variant, there is a 25% chance that their offspring will have red hair. This is called recessive inheritance. Everyone who carries one of the variants is a direct descendant of the first person ever to have it.
The most red-headed part of Britain and Ireland is the South-East of Scotland with Edinburgh as a red-hotspot. 40% carry one of the three common red hair gene variants.
Scotland as whole has a higher percentage than Ireland, 36.5% as against 34.7%.
Wales is higher than Ireland with 38% - so some preconceptions of the Irish as the most red-headed nation are being reorganized.
The number of people is Britain and Ireland who are carriers is very large indeed.
"We estimate a total of 20.4 million people are carriers of the red hair variants. That should help play down ginger jibes. The percentage of red heads is lower but also varies, with about 6% of Scots having red hair, about 300,000. About 4% of English are red-heads, around 2.1 million people.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/Red-hair-is-all-set-to-disappear-thanks-to-climate-change/articleshow/38019833.cms