User:Lasme1black/sandbox

Melanin is a natural biopolymeric pigment that is found in organisms from fungi to mammals. In humans, the malformation in the polymerization of melanin results in melanoma, along with a plethora of other skin conditions. There are three major types of melanin: eumelanin, pheomelanin, and neuromelanin. Although each has its own metabolic pathway for melanin production, they all start with the amino acid, L-Tyr. In eumelanin, for example, L-Tyr is oxidized by the tyrosinase enzyme to L-dopa and Dopaquinone, which leads to a series of transient intermediates and ultimately to two molecules, DHICA and DHI. The generally accepted understanding of melanin polymerization is that the DHICA and DHI units then stack up in a certain way to make melanin, otherwise known as the Raper Mason Pathway.