Here I 🎁 present: “SHEP (Skin–Hair–Eye Pigment), Victor McKusick, Mendelian Inheritance in Man’, 1966.
INTRODUCTION
Pigment physiology is discussed here as being 📦 boxed. Boxes are ⬛ square 🧊 cube, tesseract, penteract have 4, 8, 16, 32 corners. This is a geometric concept of the physiology of pigment as five (5) anchor ⚓ genes: MC1R, TYR, OCA2, SLC24A5, MYO5A.
This is a mathematical progression of hypercubes (vertices) onto the genetic architecture of human pigmentation. In this geometric framework, your five “anchor” genes represent the vertices of a penteract (5D hypercube), which has 32 corners. Here is how those five specific genes function as the “corners” of pigment physiology:
1. MC1R: The “switch” that determines if cells produce red/yellow pheomelanin or black/brown eumelanin.
2. TYR (Tyrosinase): The primary enzyme that physically builds melanin; without it, there is no pigment.
3. OCA2: Regulates the pH of the melanosome, acting as a gatekeeper for how much pigment is actually produced.
4. SLC24A5: A major ion transporter that significantly influences the lightness or darkness of skin.
5. MYO5A: The “motor” that moves pigment granules (melanosomes) from the center of the cell to the surface.
In the 5D model, a mutation in any one of these five genes would represent a shift along an axis of the penteract, changing the “coordinate” of an individual’s physical appearance.
