DNA Traits · Skin & sun
Ease of tanning (SPIRE2)
How easily skin tans in the sun.
What the research found
In the cited research, the G allele at rs12932219 was associated with greater self-reported ease of skin tanning in the studied cohorts.
- AA
- Tans less
- AG
- Middle
- GG
- Tans more
- Evidence
- Genome-wide association with independent replication, as a secondary signal near MC1R
- Who was studied
- European-ancestry UK Biobank participants and five independent European-ancestry replication cohorts
How common each genotype is
| Region | AATans less | AGMiddle | GGTans more |
|---|---|---|---|
| All regions2,504 people | 15% | 49% | 36% |
| Africa661 people | 15% | 51% | 34% |
| The Americas347 people | 10% | 44% | 46% |
| East Asia504 people | 12% | 51% | 37% |
| Europe503 people | 22% | 50% | 28% |
| South Asia489 people | 14% | 46% | 40% |
Among the 2,504 people of the 1000 Genomes Project, in five world regions. These percentages describe groups of people, never anyone’s chance of having a trait.
The marker
- Gene or region
- SPIRE2 (16q24, near MC1R)
- Marker
- rs12932219
- Location
- Chromosome 16 · GRCh37 89,916,391 · GRCh38 89,849,983
- Letters studied
- A and G, with G as the studied allele
A DNA Traits report reads this marker in your raw DNA file and shows which of the three genotypes is yours, with how common it is. It counts the copies of the studied allele; it does not measure the trait itself.
- Marker
- SPIRE2 (16q24, near MC1R) · rs12932219
- Location
- Chromosome 16 · GRCh37 89,916,391 · GRCh38 89,849,983
- Studied allele
- G
- Published statistic
- OR 0.71 per G allele for low tan response (95 per cent CI 0.70 to 0.72, SE 0.01), UK Biobank P 3.87e-335, replication meta-analysis in five European cohorts P 2.09e-86 (Supplementary Table 10); in Lifelines the neighbouring SPIRE2 marker rs35096708 leads the skin reflectance GWAS at P 4.5e-151 (Vollenbrock 2022 Table S5) (Supplementary Table 10 (independent signals from the stepwise conditional analysis) for the odds ratio; the 121,296 is printed in the Results, first paragraph of Genome-wide association analyses)
- 1000 Genomes Project phase 3, people with 0, 1 and 2 copies
- All regions 376 / 1221 / 907 · Africa 101 / 334 / 226 · The Americas 36 / 153 / 158 · East Asia 59 / 259 / 186 · Europe 110 / 251 / 142 · South Asia 70 / 224 / 195
What it cannot tell you
A marker near MC1R found after allowing for the region's strongest signal; how far it stands in for MC1R variants common only in European ancestry is not known.
Genome-wide association study in 176,678 Europeans reveals genetic loci for tanning response to sun exposure (Visconti et al., 2018)More in Skin & sun
- Ease of tanning association
- Severe sunburn history association
- Mole count association
- Facial pigmented spots association
- Ease of tanning (TYRP1)
- Ease of tanning (TRPS1)
- Ease of tanning (EMX2)
- Ease of tanning (IRF4)
- Ease of tanning (MC1R R151C)
- Tanning ability (ASIP region)
- Ease of sunburn (SLC45A2)
- Sunburn history (MC1R R160W)
- Stretch marks
See your own two letters.
Upload the raw DNA file you already have. Your report reads this marker and every other card studied for you, each with its evidence and its limits.