Red..well any hair colour, again.
Genome-wide study of hair colour in UK Biobank explains most of the SNP heritability.
Michael D. Morgan, Erola Pairo-Castineira, Konrad Rawlik, Oriol Canela-Xandri, Jonathan Rees, David Sims, Albert Tenesa & Ian J. Jackson
[Link to Nature Comm paper] https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-07691-z
My guess is this is likely my last ‘research paper’ (although I now choose to redefine what counts as research). But not my last ‘thinking paper’. I cannot help but contrast the sheer volume of activity with that from our original papers on red hair. Things seemed so much simpler when we were young. But it is a nice coda to a career fugue.
No time for Neanderthals
Some Neanderthals would — based on MC1R sequence — be expected to have red hair. What has always caused me confusion is the way that dates for everything to do with human paleohistory, and the various representations of our evolution, are revised based on n of 1 publications. No doubt the story will get easier, but I think silence for a while on the ‘greatest story every told’ would be in order. At least from me.
Note added: And then…..