Microarray analysis of genes impacted by 5 day knockdown of SLC24A5 in normal human melanocytes.

A major development in pigmentation research was the discovery of the involvement of SLC24A5 in natural variation in skin colour. This study used Agilent whole-genome microarrays to examine the impact of SLC24A5 knockdown on the transcriptome of normal human melanocytes derived from lightly and darkly pigmented donors. 2 melanocyte cell lines were treated for 6h, with 2 separate siRNA duplexes to target SLC24A5. Treatment of the cells with a non-targeting siRNA control duplex, lipofectamine transfection reagent alone and unchallenged cells, cultured alongside the cellular treatments comprised the controls for the experiment. All treatments and controls were conducted in triplicate, in both cell lines.