Markers / Gene
ASIP
One position in this gene is readable from a home DNA test.
The pigment switch that works in the opposite direction
rs6058017 · chr20:32,856,998 · A/G · evidence: strong
ASIP tells pigment cells to make the lighter red-yellow pigment instead of the dark brown one. Unlike most pigmentation variants studied in Europeans, this one varies strongly across African and South Asian populations too.
| If you carry | What it means |
|---|---|
| No copies | You do not carry this version |
| One copy | You carry one copy |
| Two copies | You carry two copies |
| Ancestry group | G (the effect version) | |
|---|---|---|
| African | 79.1% | |
| American | 13.5% | |
| East Asian | 21.2% | |
| European | 10.3% | |
| South Asian | 16.7% |
1000 Genomes Project phase 3, via Ensembl, retrieved 2026-09-23. These groupings are coarse and flatten a great deal of internal diversity, particularly within Africa. A variant being common somewhere tells you where a piece of your ancestry probably comes from, and nothing else.
Where this gene fits
If you have taken a home DNA test, these positions are already in your file.
Read my file