Washington, Oct 26 : Analysis of ancient DNA retrieved from the bones of two Neanderthals has shown that at least some of them possessed red hair and pale skin.

The researchers say Neanderthals’ pigmentation might have been as varied as that of modern humans and at least one percent of Neanderthals were likely redheads.

The international team of scientists from the US, Germany and Spain extracted, amplified, and sequenced a pigmentation gene called MC1R from the bones of a 43,000-year-old Neanderthal from El Sidrón, Spain, and a 50,000-year-old individual from Monti Lessini, Italy.

To ensure that the MC1R point mutation was not due to contamination from modern humans, the researchers checked some 3,700 people, including those previously sequenced for the gene as well as everyone involved in the excavation and genetic analysis of the two Neanderthals.

The team found that none showed the mutation, which, in other words meant that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens followed different evolutionary paths to the same redheaded appearance.

“Together with other genes, this MC1R gene dictates hair and skin colour in humans and other mammals. The two Neanderthal individuals we studied showed a point mutation not seen in modern humans. When we induced such a mutation in human cells, we found that it impaired MC1R activity, a condition that leads to red hair and pale skin in modern humans,” said Holger Römpler of the University of Leipzig.

Römpler is presently working as a postdoctoral researcher with Hopi E. Hoekstra in Harvard University’s Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology.

MC1R is a receptor found in cell membranes that acts as a switch between production of the red-and-yellow pigment pheomelanin and the black-and-brown pigment eumelanin.

Modern humans with mutations that cause complete or partial loss of MC1R function tend to be pale and red-haired, although many other pigmentation genes can also result in this phenotype.

While anthropologists had predicted that Neanderthals might have had pale skin or red hair, the new work by Römpler and his colleagues offer the first strong evidence to support this theory.

Other researchers on the project include, Carles Lalueza-Fox of the University of Barcelona and Michael Hofreiter of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. (ANI)