Dark-skinned, golden-haired Solomon Islanders get their striking locks from a gene mutation different from the one that makes some Europeans blonde, according to a study published Thursday.

Up to 10 percent of the indigenous Melanesian people in the Solomon Islands have naturally blonde hair - the highest occurrence outside of Europe - but they also have the darkest skin pigmentation outside of Africa.

Some islanders have theorized a diet rich in fish or an excess of sun exposure caused this phenomenon, while others believed the trait was passed down from liaisons with European explorers.

But the new study, published in the journal Science, found the islanders' surprising hair color comes from a recessive genetic mutation that evolved independently of European DNA.

The researchers compared the genomes of Melanesian study participants, 43 with blonde hair and 42 with dark hair.

They found blond hair was strongly associated with a mutation in the TYRP1 gene, which encodes an enzyme involved in pigmentation but is not linked to blonde hair coloration in Europeans.

The researchers believe their work highlights the importance of genetic mapping using isolated populations to help shed new light on how different traits evolve.

"Since most studies in human genetics only include participants of European descent, we may be getting a very biased view of which genes and mutations influence the traits we investigate," said co-senior author Carlos D. Bustamante, a professor of genetics at Stanford University.

"Here, we sought to test whether one of the most striking human traits, blonde hair, had the same - or different - genetic underpinning in different human populations," Bustamante said.

Originally published as Blonde islanders' genetic quirk