Table 1.

Description of populations and studies used for analyses of MC1R allele frequencies

Population Name	Description	# Individuals	Reference
Africa	Healthy subjects from South Africa (22 Negroid and 17 San people), 25 from South Africa, Nigeria, Zaire, Kenya and Gambia, and 53 from The Ivory Coast and Gambia	117	John 2003, Rana 1999, Harding 2000
India	Healthy subjects from studies investigating MC1R variants.	53	Rana 1999, Harding 2000
Southern Europe	Healthy subjects from Spain (188), Italy (495) and Greece (155)	838	Fernandez 2007, Harding2000, Fargnoli 2003, Pastorino 2004, Landi 2005, Fargnoli 2006, Stratigos 2006,
Northern Europe	Healthy subjects from The Netherlands (385), Britain/Ireland (93) and France (172)	650	Bastiaens 2001, Kennedy 2001, Flanagan 2000, Harding 2000, Chaudru 2005
Asia	Healthy subjects from East and Southeast Asia. Rana et al reported individuals from China (50), Japan (4), Cambodia (1), Vietnam (1), Siberian Yakut (5) and Mongolia (4). The remaining studies were of individuals from Japan.	343	Rana 1999, Harding 2000, Motokawa 2006, Nakayama 2006
Papua New Guinea	Healthy subjects from studies investigating MC1R variants.	40	Harding 2000, Nakayama 2006
United States	Healthy Caucasian subjects participating in a population based study conducted in Philadelphia, PA and Caucasian spouse controls from the US in a familial melanoma case/control study.	265	Kanetsky 2004, Goldstein 2005