Markers / Gene
SLC45A2
One position in this gene is readable from a home DNA test.
The second big pigmentation switch
rs28777 · chr5:33,958,959 · C/A · evidence: established
SLC45A2 sits alongside SLC24A5 as one of the two strongest pigmentation genes. Between them they account for much of the difference in skin tone across populations.
| If you carry | What it means |
|---|---|
| No copies | Darker-skin version, two copies |
| One copy | One of each |
| Two copies | Lighter-skin version, two copies |
| Ancestry group | A (the effect version) | |
|---|---|---|
| African | 19.5% | |
| American | 49.3% | |
| East Asian | 11.7% | |
| European | 95.6% | |
| South Asian | 22.3% |
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