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Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2006-05 > 1147113002


From: "Barron, Margaret" <>
Subject: RE: [DNA] Brown eyes
Date: Mon, 8 May 2006 14:30:02 -0400


What if both parents have brown eyes but the mother (most likely not the father as his entire family is Persian)carries the gene for blue/green eyes?
My sister asked me this the other day, since she is getting married this summer and her fiance is from Iran (with a 100% Persian background). She has light brown eyes with a 'slightly hazel' tone to them. I have 'bright' green-blue eyes (everyone always thinks I'm wearing contacts). Our mother has light green eyes (like fresh grren grass) and our father has dark brown eyes. She asked what her chances are of having a child with non-brown/hazel eyes.

Maggie Barron
Ottawa

-----Original Message-----
From: John Lerch [mailto:]
Sent: May 8, 2006 1:58 PM
To:
Subject: [DNA] Brown eyes


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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