ArticlePNAS nexus2026
MC1R depalmitoylation inhibition reveals a physiological role for pheomelanin.
Article in PNAS nexus, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Review
- Insights into the mechanism underlying feather pattern formation of sex-linked barring in Chinese native chickens.Poultry science · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Pheomelanin is a sulfur-containing pigment produced by melanocytes notably in individuals with red hair/fair skin and animals with orange integumentary structures. Pheomelanin is not photoprotective as the dark eumelanin, but is cytotoxic, being related to a high risk of melanoma independently of UV radiation. This questions any physiological role for the pigment. The persistence of genetic variants promoting pheomelanogenesis may be explained by a contribution to cysteine homeostasis, as the toxicity of excessive cysteine accumulation in melanocytes may be avoided when the amino acid is used to build the inert pigment. Such function remains untested. Recently, melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R) signaling, which hinders pheomelanogenesis, has been shown to be highly dependent on its degree of palmitoylation. Finding an efficient selective inhibitor of the enzyme that catalyzes depalmitoylation (APT2), ML349, has thus opened a convenient pharmacological method to block pheomelanogenesis and thus test for its physiological role. Here, a simultaneous treatment with dietary cysteine and ML349 impaired feather pheomelanin-based pigmentation in male zebra finches
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