Polygenic prediction of population skin color

A polygenic score built from 587 variants for untanned (baseline) skin pigmentation tracks average skin color across 29 populations with a correlation around 0.79, suggesting PGS can capture broad between‑population differences for some traits. Because pigmentation is measured on sun‑protected skin, it offers a cleaner test of genetic versus environmental influence than traits like height or schooling. — If polygenic scores reliably track population averages for visible traits, that raises technical and ethical questions about how genomic prediction is used in public policy, forensics, reproductive markets, and public conversation about race and ancestry.