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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to really not understand the genetics involved in eye color?

213 replies

CheerfulYank · 11/10/2011 06:40

It's all very confusing. Blush I remember something about punnett squares, and two blue eyed people not "being able" to have a brown-eyed child, but now I think that's a myth, isn't it? Or something?

My eyes are a very pale blue, DH's are brownish hazel. DS's are blue. I was just on a website "predicting" your future children's eye colors and it said they would be brown as DH's are brown, but that's obviously not the case.

Can someone who did not spend high school biology class flirting with their lab partner explain this to me? Blush In small words?

OP posts:
Catsmamma · 11/10/2011 14:06

blue eyed cats are often deaf if that helps any??

I have weird eye colour which varies greatly....from sludgey khaki to very bright green. So bright that on occasion i have had to take out my lenses to prove that i was not wearing tinted ones!

My parents both have/had blue eyes and my bro too. But my ma's bro, and my dad's sister have hazelly/green eyes

Dh has amazingly chocolate brown eyes, as do both boys, who despite being 5 years apart are like clones and dd has my eye colour.

I am HUGELY interested in the Bossy Gene theory, to hell with dominant and recessive. :o

Salmotrutta · 11/10/2011 14:07

Yay!!
It was an educated guess obviously!! Grin

ScarletLadyOfTheNight01 · 11/10/2011 14:09

Salmotrutta - Good guess. I only actually found out what it was called relatively recently when someone said "Oh! You have sectoral heterochromia!" And I was confused. I do love my eyes. Although my first boyfriend did think I was deaf in one ear as apparently that's what it means in dogs...and he had a dog who had it.

tyler80 · 11/10/2011 14:20

Everybody has blue or brown eyes even if they are green! One set of genes control brown or blue then other genes interact to produce further variations including green/hazel.

My eyes are green, but I'm pretty certain that if you were to test my genes you'd find two blue eye genes and in fact this is what colour they were as a baby. So underneath they're blue there's just other colours over the top that make them green.

brokenmarrow · 11/10/2011 14:24

Hi to those with 2 different coloured eyes if the pupils are different sizes and one eyelid sits a bit lower it could be Horners Syndrome which is to do with the sympathetic nervous system and also can include a weird symptom where you only sweat on one side of your face.

David Bowie has a very extreme case of this but there can be really subtle versions too.

ScarletLadyOfTheNight01 · 11/10/2011 14:28

brokenmarrow - I don't have any symptoms like that. I always get compared to David Bowie but my eyes look nothing like that. I've linked a pic if anyone's scientifically interested (sorry for the cheesy pic, it's the one that shows the different colours best).

s41.photobucket.com/albums/e254/partyp/?action=view¤t=DSC00303.jpg

AmberLeaf · 11/10/2011 14:35

I find this fascinating.

I have green eyes, no one in my family going back generations had green eyes.

Everyone had blue or grey and I have one Grandfather with brown eyes so I suppose its his brown gene that has given me my green eyes.

Mine are also odd in that the colours and patterns are different on each eye. They were also blue up until I was about 2 1/2 yrs old.

I was hoping that at least one of my DCs would get my eye colour but no! they all have brown eyes like their dad.

ScarahStratton · 11/10/2011 14:37

I have dark blue eyes.

XH has mid/light blue eyes.

DD1 has hazel/green eyes and DD2 has hazel/brown eyes.

I can't work that one out.

ScarletLadyOfTheNight01 · 11/10/2011 14:39

Oh to add to the genetics side of it, my Dad has brown eyes and my Mum has blue. DH has blue/grey eyes and our DD has very weird eyes. In some light they look brown, in some they look dark grey.

I always figured that, being a Libra, I just couldn't decide what colour I wanted.

Scientifically though, I'm told that blue is the absence of pigment so I should really have brown eyes but the pigment is missing in part of my eye (I'm a MUTANT!). That's what I've been told anyway, I'm happy to have someone elaborate on that if they know more about it.

tyler80 · 11/10/2011 14:42

Amberleaf - it's unlikely you have your grandfather's brown gene or your eyes would be brown. More likely he had a green gene which has been passed down and interacts with the blue genes to cause green eyes

tyler80 · 11/10/2011 14:46

I do wonder if there's still a north south divide with respect to eye colour. I know when I was at school in the north the vast majority of the class had blue eyes (25 out of 30) and our southern teacher was amazed because it was the opposite way round in the southern schools he'd taught at.

People are more geographically mobile now so would expect the difference to be less pronounced but it was thought to be due to Viking genes dominating in the north and Norman genes in the south

sarahtigh · 11/10/2011 14:53

call brown eyed gene "B" and and recessive blue eyed gene "b"

if parents have both BB all kids will be BB too and have brown eyes
if parents both bb children bb and will have blue eyes

if you are Bb you have a blue gene but your eyes are actually brown

so two parents both Bb children could be BB Bb bB or bb so though both parents have brown eyes 25% of children will have blue eyes and 50% will have blue genes though still brown eyed

that is the simple version, but there are more than 2 genes involved and occasionally mutant genes

HerScaryness · 11/10/2011 14:53

My X has brown eyes (egyptian) i have olive coloured eyes...

DS has BLUE eyes.

Reason for this is that European genes are stronger (having migrated up from point of human origin, rumoured to be Ethiopia-ish) while egyptian genes didn't have to travel so far.

Any genes that made it as far north as the UK/Europe would have had to have endured great journeys, hardships etc, so in survival of the fittest, european genes would beat white egyptian.

That was my theory anyway. (My mum has blue eyes, which is where DS gets his from we think!)

One of X friends married a russian, their baby had blue eyes too.

AmberLeaf · 11/10/2011 14:53

Thanks for that explanation Tyler80!

Its a real mystery [s'pose its not though is it, its just science!]

It would make sense that he had a green gene, he had a Gypsy heritage [Andalucian-thats all we know about it] so I dont have much knowledge about that side of my family background.

Ive tried those online calculator things and I hate them because they say parents with my parents eye colour cant have a green eyed child~! [im def not adopted]

But I like my green eyes! Smile

brokenmarrow · 11/10/2011 15:02

scarletlady sorry cant open your pic at the minute. Are your pupils different sizes or different colours or both ?

ScarletLadyOfTheNight01 · 11/10/2011 15:12

My pupils are exactly the same. One of my irises (is that the correct plural?) is brown, and one is just over half blue with brown at the top. As you can normally only see the bottom section (due to natural eyelid covering...if that makes sense) it looks like I have one blue and one brown. If I open my eyes right up you can see it clearly.

I've never had any health problem or problems with my eyes, I have prefect vision in both eyes. The doctor's never mentioned it. It wasn't until reading this thread that I knew there were problems linked to it, I hope I don't have anything to worry about.

ScarletLadyOfTheNight01 · 11/10/2011 15:13

perfect vision...not prefect vision, sorry >_

bruffin · 11/10/2011 15:31

I have brown eyes
mum had green eyes (welsh)
dad brown eyes (greek)

DH has blue grey eyes
DS the meditteranean brown eyes
DD has blue grey eyes

AmberLeaf · 11/10/2011 16:14

Been thinking about the green gene thing.

I sort of thought that you get green from the blue and brown mixing, but Tyler80 you said you have to have brown with a green gene?

So my next question is; where did the green start?

If that makes sense?

bruffin · 11/10/2011 16:26

Amberleaf I understand what you mean ,obviously I must have some blue genes from my mum's green eyes for DD to have blue eyes.
Also my sister has the same mediterranean brown eyes I have, but both her DD's have their dad's blue eyes.

LaWeasel · 11/10/2011 16:29

We do have hereditary hearing problems in our family but it's too early to tell if DD (with her chromic eyes) has them as well. My sister and mum (who also have hearing problems) have standard blue eyes so if they share the chromic genes it must not exhibit that way in them.

ThisIsExtremelyVeryNotGood · 11/10/2011 18:17

My XP has bright blue eyes, I have blue green. DS1 (by some weird fluke of nature I presume) has very deep chocolate brown eyes, DS2 has bright blue like his Dad, DD has blue currently but they're starting to go the same colour as mine. I don't understand how it works either LOL!

Fifis25StottieCakes · 11/10/2011 18:26

My dad had blue eyes and my mam has green. Me and 1 DB have green other two DB have blue.

So i have green, kids dad has blue. All 3 dd's have blue.

cricketballs · 11/10/2011 19:29

I have dark brown eyes, dh has a mixture of colours!

My dad has brown eyes, mum has bright blue eyes

FIL and MIL both have brown eyes

eldest ds has dark brown the same as mine, youngest ds has bright blue just like my mum and sisters

IvyAndGold · 11/10/2011 20:04

I tried to work all this out when I was pregnant, but it's just confusing. DD was born with blue eyes, which changed to green and then slowly brown, where we thought it would end up. But only one did, so now she has a solid brown eye, and one green/hazel eye Confused