Variation in human hair morphology within and among human populations

人群内部和人群之间人类毛发形态的变化

• 批准号: 1453571
• 负责人: Nina Jablonski
• 金额: $ 8.24万
• 依托单位: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-02-01 至 2019-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1453571&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Variation; human; hair; morphology; within

Human scalp hair varies considerably in form and color, within and among human populations. This study will analyze recently collected hair samples representing a wide range of human populations, enabling an unprecedented microscopic investigation of variability in human scalp hair features and laying the groundwork for future research that links hair form and color with their underlying genetics. The project will advance science and benefit society by providing additional measures of hair variation that can be used in forensic contexts to address questions of ancestry and personal identification, and by providing new information on how the forces of evolution have influenced hair morphology in our species. The investigators will apply recent technological advances in optical microscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and three dimensional scanning electron microscopy (3D SEM) to define and measure the dimensions of external hair forms and internal structures. Specific attention will be focused on identification of patterns of variation in curl patterns, cross sectional dimensions, cuticle thickness, and orientation of cortical structures within and along the length of the hair shaft. The nature and significance of the observed patterns of variation will be rigorously tested using appropriate statistical methods. Because the hair samples are associated with genotyped DNA samples, future studies correlating single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and morphological variation will be possible. These investigations are expected to shed light on the range of diversity in human hair forms, illuminate instances of convergent evolution in hair form, and suggest specific avenues for further exploration of the relative roles of natural selection, gene flow, and genetic drift in the evolution of human scalp hair form. By understanding the morphological hair features in detail the investigators will be able to plan efficient and focused phenotyping programs for both gene discovery and forensic efforts.This project is jointly supported by the National Institute of Justice and the Biological Anthropology Program at NSF.

人类的头发在形态和颜色上有很大的差异，在人类内部和人类之间。这项研究将分析最近收集的代表广泛人群的头发样本，从而对人类头皮毛发特征的变异性进行前所未有的显微镜调查，并为未来将头发形状和颜色与其潜在遗传学联系起来的研究奠定基础。该项目将通过提供可用于法医背景下的毛发变异的额外措施来促进科学和造福社会，以解决祖先和个人身份识别问题，并提供有关进化力量如何影响我们物种毛发形态的新信息。研究人员将应用光学显微镜，透射电子显微镜（TEM）和三维扫描电子显微镜（3D SEM）的最新技术进步来定义和测量外部毛发形式和内部结构的尺寸。特别注意将集中在卷曲模式，横截面尺寸，角质层厚度和皮质结构的方向内和沿着长度的毛干的变化模式的识别。将使用适当的统计方法严格检验观察到的变异模式的性质和意义。由于头发样本与基因型DNA样本相关，因此未来将有可能进行单核苷酸多态性（SNP）与形态学变异相关的研究。这些调查有望揭示人类头发形态多样性的范围，阐明头发形态趋同进化的实例，并为进一步探索自然选择、基因流动和遗传漂变在人类头皮头发形态进化中的相对作用提出具体途径。通过详细了解毛发的形态特征，研究人员将能够为基因发现和法医工作制定有效和集中的表型分析计划。该项目由美国国家司法研究所和NSF生物人类学项目共同支持。