Strange behavioral days?

You'll never know what you might find if you go looking....

So, on my question for skin color genes, Signatures of Positive Selection in Genes Associated with Human Skin Pigmentation as Revealed from Analyses of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms:

...We identified eight genes that are associated with the melanin pathway (SLC45A2, OCA2, TYRP1, DCT, KITLG, EGFR, DRD2 and PPARD) and presented significant differences in genetic variation between Europeans, Africans and Asians. In six of these genes we detected, by means of the EHH test, variability patterns that are compatible with the hypothesis of local positive selection in Europeans (OCA2, TYRP1 and KITLG) and in Asians (OCA2, DCT, KITLG, EGFR and DRD2), whereas signals were scarce in Africans (DCT, EGFR and DRD2).

You might recognize DRD2. If not, let me remind you. By coincidence this paper was brought to my attention today....

Polymorphisms in the Dopamine D4 and D2 Receptor Genes and Reproductive and Sexual Behaviors:

...Minor alleles of both polymorphisms (7R and A1 respectively) are believed to decrease the function of their respective receptors. Individuals with DRD4 7R alleles were more likely to have had sexual intercourse and to desire children earlier in life. In addition, DRD4 7R+ individuals were more likely to report multi-racial ancestries. Individuals with DRD2 A1 alleles were more likely to not want children and not want to marry. These results suggest that polymorphisms in the DRD4 and DRD2 genes are meaningfully associated with variation in reproductive and sexual behaviors. These results are provisionally interpreted as consistent with other findings suggesting that DRD4 7R and DRD2 A1 alleles are adaptive for lower offspring investment strategies in dynamic social environments.

Tags

More like this

Over the history of this weblog I have blogged about pigmentation a fair amount. The major reason is that that's where the money is; unlike height, let alone intelligence, the genetic architecture and evolutionary history of pigmentation has been elucidated with relative clarity. That is, we know…
Richard Sturm in Human Molecular Genetics has a really good review of the current state of pigmentation genetics, with a human centric focus: The genetic basis underlying normal variation in the pigmentary traits of skin, hair and eye colour has been the subject of intense research directed at…
A few years ago, a new paper, SLC24A5, a putative cation exchanger, affects pigmentation in zebrafish and humans, made some waves. It used zebrafish to elucidate the genetics of a locus, SLC24A5, which is responsible for 1/3 of the between population difference between Europeans and Africans in…
Yann points me to a new paper, Complex signatures of selection for the melanogenic loci TYR, TYRP1 and DCT in humans: Diversity patterns clearly evidence adaptive selection in pigmentation genes in Africans and Asians. In Europeans, the evidence is more complex, and both directional and balancing…