Solute Carrier Family 24, Member 5 (SLC24A5)

SLC24A5 is a member of the potassium-dependent sodium/calcium exchanger family. Sequence variation in this gene has been associated with differences in skin pigmentation.The SLC24A5 gene is located on the long (q) arm of chromosome 15 on position 21.1, from base pair 46,200,461 to base pair 46,221,881. Variations in the SLC24A5 gene are thought to explain between 25 and 38% of skin pigmentation variation between Black African and White European humans.Research led by cancer geneticist Keith Cheng and anthropologist Mark D. Shriver at Penn State University along with a number of other institutions discovered that the gene has two primary alleles that differ in only one nucleotide, changing the 111th amino acid from alanine to threonine.