Light skin of UVA can penetrate deeply into the dermis in persons with light skin pigmentation with little protective melanin pigment. The characteristic of fair skin, red hair, and freckling is associated with high amount of pheomelanin, little amounts of eumelanin. This phenotype is caused by a loss-of-function mutation in the melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) gene. However, variations in the MC1R gene sequence only have considerable influence on pigmentation in populations where red hair and extremely fair skin is prevalent. The gene variation’s primary effect is to promote eumelanin synthesis at the expense of pheomelanin synthesis, although this contributes to very little
Photosynthetic pigment other groups of bacteria use the bacteriochlorophyll pigments (similar to the chlorophylls) for photosynthesis. Unlike the cyanobacteria, these bacteria do not produce oxygen; they typically use hydrogen sulfide rather than water as the electron donor. Recently, a very different pigment has been found in some marine γ-proteobacteria: proteorhodopsin. It is similar to and probably originated from bacteriorhodopsin (see below: under Archaea). Bacterial chlorophyll b has been isolated from Rhodopseudomonas spp. but its structure is not yet known to us. Halobacteria use the pigment bacteriorhodopsin which acts directly as a proton pump when exposed to light. Photosynthetic pigment A photosynthetic pigment