Nine Genes Behind Eyebrow Colors Identified

Nine genes responsible for eyebrow colors have been identified for the first time by an international research team. C10orf11 is the newly-identified gene that only affects eyebrow colors.

Nine genes have been identified for the first time that are responsible for eyebrow colors by an international research team.

Eyebrow color is one of the most recognizable visual traits of the human body. It has a strong correlation with hair color, but scientists believe in the existence of overlapping and unique genetic components for both traits.

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‘C10orf11 is the newly-identified gene that only affects eyebrow colors. However, nine genes responsible for eyebrow colors have been identified.’

Previous studies on human eyes, hair, and skin color have identified multiple gene variants, but no findings for eyebrow color have been reported as of yet.

For the new study, researchers from China, the Netherlands, Australia, Britain and the US analysed samples of 6,513 European individuals, and graded colors into four categories: red, blond, brown and black, Xinhua reported.

They found that eight genes, previously known pigmentation genes, could affect both eyebrow and hair color, such as gene variant MC1R, responsible for both blond eyebrows and red hair.

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In addition, C10orf11 is the newly-identified gene that only affects eyebrow colors.

With these findings, researchers developed an eyebrow color prediction model and are ready to improve it by studying the different age distributions.

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Such a DNA-based eyebrow color prediction model would improve the human phenotype research and be useful in future forensic applications, said lead author Liu Fan, researcher at the Beijing Institute of Genomics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"Based on the new discoveries, we can more accurately infer individual hair, eyes, skin, eyebrow color and other phenotypic information just from a DNA sample," Fan said in the paper published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology.