Role of RAB27A in Skin Color Determination Figure 2. The RAB27A gene and protein expression in correlation with melanin content in cultured human melanocytes. Scatter plots demonstrate whether melanin contents correlate with tyrosinase enzymatic activity and/or with the levels of TYR, RAB27A and SLAC-2A transcript expression in cultured human melanocytes derived from 19 individuals (A–D). The expression levels of proteins of interest and melanin contents are presented using the aforementioned 19 cell lines of melanocytes (E). Melanin content in melanocytes is shown in a bar chart below which are the bands reflecting protein expression of RAB27A, tyrosinase and b-actin as marked. (D) Scatter plots demonstrate whether correlations are observed between the melanin content and/or the amount of RAB27A protein expression (F), between tyrosinase activity and the amount of RAB27A protein expression (H) and between the amount of transcript expression of MITF and RAB27A (H). The transcript expressions of TYR, RAB27A, SLAC2-A and MITF normalized by GAPDH expression are demonstrated (B–D, H). The amount of RAB27A protein expression was normalized by that of b-actin (F, G). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0041160.g002 PLoS ONE | www.plosone.org 4 July 2012 | Volume 7 | Issue 7 | e41160