Question

Only 1% of the world's population has red hair. It is caused by a recessive variation in the MCR1 gene that codes for hair color. In 1 sentence, explain how this variation could have formed in ancestral DNA, and how it has led to red hair through viable errors.

Answer 1

The recessive variation in the MCR1 gene likely formed through a series of mutations in ancestral DNA, where these genetic errors conferred a selective advantage under specific environmental conditions (such as reduced UV radiation in Northern latitudes), thus becoming persistently passed on and manifesting as red hair in individuals who inherited two copies of the variant.