ANT203H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Hair Cell, Melanosome, Electromagnetic Spectrum
Document Summary
Skin pigmentation is one of the most variable phenotypes in humans. The variation of skin pigmentation is highly correlated with latitude, as you can see in the following slides. This was in the early 1900s, and is based on his study of pigmentation. Pigmentation is correlated with latitude: people living in the equator tend to have darker skin. And people living in higher latitudes, tend to have less melanin. In the skin, these cells (melanocyte) is where melanin is going to be synthesize. Within the melanocytes, melanin is synthesized in organelles known as melanosomes. Melanosomes are then transferred, through dendritic structures, from the melanocytes to surrounding cells in the epidermis, known as keratinocytes. Tyrosinase is the key enzyme involved in melanin synthesis: this is the key enzymes (and there are more enzymes, this is the major enzyme that is involvedd in the synthesis of melanin in the melanosomes. This is where melanin will be synthesis.
