NCI Primary Human Melanocyte QTL Study

In order to create a melanocyte-specific eQTL resource, we obtained primary human melanocyte cultures isolated from foreskin of 106 healthy newborn males predominantly of European descent. Melanocytes were cultured in lot-matched culture medium in randomized batches to minimize variability that could be introduced by culturing conditions. RNA sequencing and direct SNP genotyping of these samples produced an average of ~87.9 million reads (paired-end, stranded, 126bps), and ~713,000 SNP genotypes, respectively.