Exploring Skin Pigmentation Adaptation: A Systematic Review on the Vitamin D Adaptation Hypothesis.

Understanding the genetic adaptations that occurred as humans migrated out of Africa to higher latitudes helps explain on a population-wide level how UV radiation (UVR) exposure will have varying consequences and benefits in patients of different skin pigmentations. It has been hypothesized that the need for efficient vitamin D synthesis was the primary driver for the skin-lightening process that evolutionarily occurred as humans migrated to higher latitudes. This review analyzes the level of support for the hypothesis that skin lightening occurred to enable adequate vitamin D synthesis in populations that migrated to areas with less UVR.

A simple and accessible CRISPR genome editing laboratory exercise using yeast.

CRISPR is a revolutionary tool to engineer the genome. Herein, we describe a laboratory exercise designed to introduce students to CRISPR by editing the genome of yeast to disrupt the gene, which results in yeast that form red colored colonies. The experiment was constructed to be performed in a single laboratory session and to be accessible to students and instructors without experience working with yeast.