Effects of Hypopigmentation Alleles and Ancestry on Skin Color in the Kalinago of Dominica

Admixture analysis of 458 Kalinago individuals from the Commonwealth of Dominica shows 55% Native American ancestry grouping with East Asian ancestry at K=3, 32% African, and 11% European ancestry. Skin pigmentation measures (Melanin Index) ranged from 20 to 80, averaging 46. Three albino individuals were found to be homozygous for a multi-nucleotide polymorphism OCA2NW273KV of African origin whose single allele effect size was -8 melanin units. European hypopigmenting allele frequencies for SLC24A5A111T and SLC45A2L374F were 0.14 and 0.05, with effect sizes per allele of -6 and -3, respectively. Native American Ancestry contributed an effect size of about -22 melanin units.