Essay --

P Gene as an Inherited Biomarker of Human Eyecolor1 The variants within the key pigmentation gene, melanocortin-receptor 1 (MC1R), in particular have been ubiquitously linked with high risk traits and skin cancers involving both pigmentary and non-pigmentary functions and likely interaction with variants in other genes. In conclusion, the genetic variants within the genes involved in skin pigmentation besides influencing phenotypic traits are important determinants of risk of several skin cancers, (National Center For Biotechnology Information). Using a sample of 629 normally pigmented individuals, we found that individuals were less likely to have blue or gray eyes if they had P gene variants Arg305Trp (P = 0.002), Arg419Gln (P = 0.001), or the combination of both variants (P = 0.003). These results suggest that P gene, in part, determines normal phenotypic variation in human eye color and may therefore represent an inherited biomarker of cutaneous cancer risk. To evaluate whether the P gene is associated with human eye color in nonalbino individuals representing the normal phenotyp...