Abstract: Melanin is distributed widely in many organisms including bacteria, fungi, plants and animals. Lighter variation soft pigmentation in humans is associated with diminished number, size, and density of melanosomes, the pigmented or ganelles of melanocytes. Here we reviewed that zebrafish golden mutants share these melanosomal changes and that golden encodes a putative cation exchanger SLC24A5 that localizes to an intracellular membrane, likely the melanosome or its precursor. The human ortholog is highly similar in sequence and functional in zebrafish. The evolutionarily conserved ancestral allele of a human coding polymorphism predominates in African and East Asian populations. In contrast, the variant allele is nearly fixed in European populations, is associated with a substantial reduction in regional heterozygosity, and correlates with lighter skin pigmentation in admixed populations, suggesting a key role for the SLC24A5 gene in human pigmentation. Finally, we reviewed research progress on melanin, SLC24A5 gene and Blackboned sheep. 

Key words: SLC24A5 gene; pigmentation; melanosome; black-boned sheep (ovis aries)