Biology of Human Skin Color

What does melanin do for your skin?

• Nothing

• Protects your cells from harmful UV rays

• Protects your cells from xrays

• Causes white spots on the skin.

If someone has darker skin tone, then they have a greater percentage of....

• Pheomelanin

• Eumelanin

What organelle synthesis the melanin, stores the melanin, and transports the melanin to the keratinocytes?

• Melanocyte

• Melanin

• Melanosomes

• Pheomelanin

What is Pheomelanin?

• A type of melanin that produces dark brown/black skin

• A type of melanin that produces reddish/yellow pigment

• An enzyme that controls skin color

• An enzyme that produces melanin

Which of the following statements about melanin is most accurate?

• Melanin is found on in human cells and is not present in other organisms.

• Human skin cells contain only one type of melanin.

• The more eumelanin an individual has in their skin cells, the darker their skin.

• The darker an individual's skin color, the more likely ultraviolet (UV) radiation will damage the DNA in their cells.

Tags

NGSS.HS-LS3-2

Which factor is directly responsible for the skin pigmentation you were born with?

• Your exposure to the sun

• Different amounts and types of melanin

• The food you eat

• Weather you live in hot or cold temperatures

What type of cells create melanin?

• Keratinocyte

• Melanocyte

• Leukocyte

• Erythrocyte

What does melanin protect?

• The nucleus

• Nucleic acid

• Folate

• All of the above

What selective advantage did people have to increase melanin production?

• Increased protection from skin cancer

• Increased protection from folate destruction

• Increased synthesis of vitamin D

• All of the above

Tags

NGSS.HS-LS4-4

What selective advantage did people have to lose increased melanin production? (Or in other words, to have less melanin?)

• Increased protection from skin cancer

• Increased protection from folate destruction

• Increased synthesis of vitamin D

• All of the above

Tags

NGSS.HS-LS4-4

NGSS.HS-LS4-2