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Name: Pamela A McDermott
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Question:
What genes give a person their skin color, eye color, etc.?


Replies:
There seem to be several genes that interact to give colors to all of our various body parts. There are some genes that just say "make color" and there are other genes that code to make different components of pigments. For example, there might be a gene to make blue pigment and gene to make yellow pigment. Together they would make pigments that might look green together. This is not something that is thoroughly understood yet, and scientists don't even know how many genes are involved in color, much less where they all are.

Ellen Mayo


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