rs3827760
Hair thickness and shovel-shaped front teeth
What this position does
One change in EDAR thickens hair shafts, increases sweat gland density and puts a distinctive scooped shape on the back of the upper front teeth. It arose in East Asia around thirty thousand years ago and reached very high frequency there.
What each result means
| If you carry | What it means |
|---|---|
| No copies of the effect version AA | You do not carry this variant, so your hair texture comes from elsewhere Neither copy carries the East Asian version. |
| One copy AG | One copy, linked to thicker hair shafts Associated with thicker hair shafts and shovel-shaped upper incisors. |
| Two copies GG | Two copies, so thick hair and shovel-shaped front teeth are likely Thicker hair, more sweat glands and shovel-shaped incisors are all likely. This is the majority genotype across East Asia and among Indigenous peoples of the Americas. |
How common each version is
| Ancestry group | G (the effect version) | |
|---|---|---|
| African | 0.3% | |
| American | 39.2% | |
| East Asian | 87.3% | |
| European | 1.1% | |
| South Asian | 1.3% |
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.
How many people carry each result
| Ancestry group | AA | AG | GG |
|---|---|---|---|
| African | 658 / 661 | 2 / 661 | 1 / 661 |
| European | 492 / 503 | 11 / 503 | 0 / 503 |
| East Asian | 12 / 504 | 104 / 504 | 388 / 504 |
| South Asian | 476 / 489 | 13 / 489 | 0 / 489 |
| American | 150 / 347 | 122 / 347 | 75 / 347 |
Counts of people, not modelled frequencies: every one of the 2,504 individuals sequenced by the 1000 Genomes Project phase 3, tallied by the genotype they carry. Deriving these from allele frequencies instead would assume random mating inside each group and undercount the homozygotes.
How to find out which you have
If you have taken a test with 23andMe, AncestryDNA, MyHeritage, Family Tree DNA, TellMeGen or Living DNA, this position is very likely already in the raw data file they gave you. You do not need another test.
One thing to watch if you look it up by hand: testing companies report some positions from one DNA strand and some from the other, and the file does not say which. Read the letters as they appear and you will get the opposite of the truth for some positions. Sequencings resolves that automatically.
Source
Coordinates and allele pair verified against Ensembl GRCh37. Direction of effect verified against VEP protein consequences or 1000 Genomes population frequency. Category: Trait.
Where this fits
Common questions
What is rs3827760?
rs3827760 is a position in the EDAR gene on chromosome 2. One change in EDAR thickens hair shafts, increases sweat gland density and puts a distinctive scooped shape on the back of the upper front teeth. It arose in East Asia around thirty thousand years ago and reached very high frequency there.
What does it mean if I have GG at rs3827760?
Two copies, so thick hair and shovel-shaped front teeth are likely. Thicker hair, more sweat glands and shovel-shaped incisors are all likely. This is the majority genotype across East Asia and among Indigenous peoples of the Americas.
What does it mean if I have AA at rs3827760?
You do not carry this variant, so your hair texture comes from elsewhere. Neither copy carries the East Asian version.
How do I find out my rs3827760 genotype?
If you have taken a home DNA test, this position is very likely in the raw data file you were given. Sequencings reads that file in your browser without uploading it, and resolves which DNA strand each position was reported from, which is the step most manual lookups get wrong.
This is reference information, not medical advice, and not a diagnosis. See the medical disclaimer. Category: Trait.