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Article

Title: I'm a natural brunette

Author: Staff Article Type: Product Analysis
Source: The Economist, v380 n8485 p75(1) Publication Date: Jul 8, 2006
  ISSN: 0013-0613
URL of Publication: http://www.economist.com

Modern genetic techniques are being used to determine what extinct, prehistoric creatures may have looked like. Holger Rompler of the University of Leipzig has published an article in 'Science' in which the genetic basis of a mammoth's shaggy hair is investigated. Dr. Rompler wanted to find out if mammoths' coats had more than one color. Mummified specimens have showed that the animals had both lighter and darker hairs, but scientists did not know if the variation in color was the result of thousands of years spent underground in Siberia's permafrost or if the mammoths actually had different colored coats. Rompler investigated a gene called the melanocortin type 1 receptor (MC1R), which makes a protein that controls hair color. Active versions of MC1R lead to dark hair, while inactive versions produce light hair. By studying gene fragments contained in mammoth bones, researchers found that the genes sometimes had differences from one another in three places. To find out if any of the variations caused differences in color, the scientists made proteins from the various mammoth gene versions. Variations at one of the sites was found to have a profound effect during testing, leading Rompler to conclude that the two colors found in the preserved mammoth hairs were the result of this genetic variation.

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