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From: John Lerch <>
Subject: Brown eyes
Date: Mon, 08 May 2006 12:57:57 -0500


It seems as if there is one gene that is indeed dominant for brown
eyes--if you've got it, you're brown-eyed and there is no problem with
your having a blue-eyed child, since you could be heterozygous; but
there are many degrees of brownness, from near hazel to almost black.
As a consequence, I've had no problem with citations that two blue eyed
people can indeed have a brown eyed child. I take that to mean just
barely brown eyed--on the verge of hazel--not the per.......ity eyes
that someone complimented my daughter on once. (Don't recall the
southern expression for that variety of sparkling brown.)

Ken wrote

> Surprisingly, Glen and I agree on this point.
>
> If listers explore the archives, you'll find quite a
> few threads from the past both on skin, hair and eye
> color. Eye color in particular is an incredibly
> complex autosomal trait and the genetic studies are
> difficult to plod through.


On the contrary, the basic bifurcation of eye coloring between brown and
non-brown is quite simple, controled by one dominant brown gene.

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