Tuna is a large, muscular fish with flesh that ranges from pink to dark red depending on the variety. The colour comes from myoglobin, an oxygen-storing protein found in muscle. Myoglobin breaks ...

“We studied this fish and, lo and behold, we found a gene that causes a really nasty human disease. I find it really gratifying,” said John Kuwada from the University of Michigan, who led the study.

It has been shown in previous work that moist fish flesh usually becomes brown during exposure to high temperatures (for example, 120° C. for 1 hr.), and that this alteration is due to reactions ...