to really not understand the genetics involved in eye color?

[CheerfulYank]

It's all very confusing. 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? In small words?

a bit like this Scarah

My eyes are bottle green and I'm a bit that DD has light blue eyes and DS has dark blue-green. Actually, after reading this thread, I'm thinking DS's eyes might turn to resemble mine [hopeful]

sorry this dropped off my screen for a couple of days...
Basically when the teacher taught this, old know it all me, immediately shouted her down and said, it is possible for 2 blues to produce brown, look at my brother and I...
she turned round quick smart with, you're obviously not your father's child then, as it is impossible!... your father must have brown eyes.
I did go home and ask mum if I was the milkmans!
Imagine that happening now :)
I should look into blood groups actually as I'm AB-

you have dominant and recessive genes. The dominant genes tend to be what shows. however it is not always the case. so sometimes the recessive gene say blue eyes pops through.

there is also other crap that determines other things and dormant genes and blah blah cant remember

to sum up your child can have any coloured eyes even ones neither parent has.

Except that doesn't really happen in real life, does it? There are exceptions to most rules but the rule is that two truly blue-eyed people don't make a brown eyed child.

Actually, I recently read a study about blue eyed men overwhelmingly preferring blue eyed women as an evolutionary strategy to be slightly more sure that the resulting child is their own. Interesting stuff.

But that's my point Cote.. my 2, truly blue eyed parents have produced brown eyed offspring. Neither of them have brown flecks or are a bit grey/green... they have clear, pale blue eyes... just like my son.

Well, that's 3 examples of that being wrong on this thread alone. Two blue eyed parents can produce a brown eyed child.

I'm not so sure. Sounds like three valid reasons for paternity tests to me

Definitely not in my case, I'm the mother and I know exactly who the father is. :)

I want to believe you ladies, but can't suspend my disbelief long enough to accept two parents with light blue eyes making two brown-eyed offspring.

I can believe it when it comes to eye colour, because it's not as straightforward genetically as blood type or sex. You can get people with eyes different colour, for example. I would like to know more about how it's possible though.

So you'd prefer to accuse me of being adulterous and passing off another man's child as legitimate? Nice. [hhmm]

I really don't think paternity tests are something to be joked about. Its a rather mean thing to say.

Bb- Which is the brown eyes gene is the maker in males.

Which means if a male has pure dark brown eyes thier children will have brown no matter what the mother has.

But note Bb gene is VERY rare it is a gene that is not touched throughout along line of history . As your child has not got brown eyes im assuming your husband has either:
Light brown eyes or mixed Hazel ect or
He has mixed eye parents where his mother is the one with brown eyes.

I have birth kids all with different eye colour .

My dad blue eyed blonde , scottish irish English mix.... ,mum dark green eyed pale skin ...supposed to have had Romany grandmother.
I have bright blue (very blue) with a navy ring around the iris., light olive skin ,light auburn hair. (but assisted blonde now) Scottish looking .

Ex h has chocolate brown , dark olive skin, brown hair.

His mum brown hair ,brown eyes. His Dad blue eyed blonde.
Dd2 has blonde hair ,light blue grey eyes. Golden skin looks morsel en

Dd3 has auburn hair and identical eyes to me , ivory skin ( when they talk about white skin ,they mean hers ) Viking looks

Ds2 dark olive skin , dark blonde hair , had bright green eyes ...not hazel ...proper green, olive green. ...his eyes turned chocolate ,like ex h. Italian looking boy.

Next dh is blonde, light blue eyed blonde with golden skin. His dad blue eye mid brown hair , his mum blue eyed brunette. Looks norweigen/Viking

Ds4 is light blonde golden skinned with eyes like ceylon sapphires with my navy ring...and black eyelashes ? Wtf ?. Beautiful but wtf ? Blondes are not supposed to have eyes like that. Norweigen looking

Dd4 is dark blonde with ivory skin ,and my eyes.
norweigen/Viking looks again.

Explain that ....? .

Dd1 , ds1 and ds3 are my step kids , so not included in sharing genetics with me. (disclaimer ... We used to call them by number as got in habit of doing head count from oldest to youngest , and it sort of stuck , especially as ds4 thinks he's lucky .

Your x husband has brown eyes . He got these of his mother so it is the gene bb not Bb (as it is only male fathers who pass the Bb gene on) As it is the bb gene it can split blue/brown ect. As you have not got a male gene of Bb in your line your childrens eye colour will differ.
lol its the Bb gene thats the only one that will reaccure again only from male pass down like i said VERY rare .

DroveABroomstick, your kids aren't hard to explain with traditional genetics.

You have blue eyes, your ex had brown (but with a recessive blue gene from his mother), so your kids could have blue or brown eyes. Your DH has blue eyes, so your kids are going to be blue eyed.

Blue eyed parents having brown eyed kids is the oddity that the straightforward model can't explain. But that's because there are several genes interacting for eye colour, not just one. I've read a bit more on it, and apparently pretty much any combination of parent/child eye colour is genetically possible, but most can be explained with the simple model.

Tierdmummy I'm not sure what you're trying to say about Bb being rare, etc. When it's usually explained, in the simple model, b is the blue eye allele, B is for brown eyes, you get one from each parent, so BB, Bb and bB give brown eyes, bb gives blue eyes. A parent passes on one of these, not both, so your comments don't make sense if you're using that nomenclature.

Still don't understand, where dd2's light blue grey eyes came from . My eyes are not nearly as light. Both her granddads are just regular blue.
I get it that ds2 has his ex-h colouring and dd3 has mine.

Ds4 has his dads coloring in white blonde hair his eyes are a mixture of dh's ,the light blue, and my navy ring....but where did he get the black eyelashes ? Does that mean he will turn brunnete ? ~is it like mixing paint then? Two different shades will get something new , or a strong pigment and it looks almost identical ?

Dd4 is blonde , but darker than her dad , more like my colour in darkness but without the ginger bits . If she darkens down she would probably end up with the same hair colour as dh's mum .(pretty ).

I don't know really, sorry. It's all rather odd, isn't it? Skin colour often seems to be midway between the parents, but not always - I knew 2 sisters, one of whom had a pale complexion and blue eyes like her dad, the other had Mediterranean colouring like her Mum. If you saw them together, you would not think they were full sisters.

Is the recessive blue gene why ds2 eyes have went from green to brown ? .his eyes were green until about 18 months ago .

Ds2 is gorgeous , but his colouring is mis matched...his eyes and skin don't go with his hair...but if he had dark hair he wouldn't look like one of mine at all .

Now I'm thinking about the tv program I saw last week about the twins that were different colours . Did anyone else see that ? .fascinating.

Most of them were from mixed race families , and there was one set that really stood out ....twin girls ..one was just normal mixed race girl , both very pretty girls , and her twin was white skinned had blonde hair and light blue eyes . The only thing she had in common with her sister was her curls.

"don't know really, sorry. It's all rather odd, isn't it? Skin colour often seems to be midway between the parents, but not always - I knew 2 sisters, one of whom had a pale complexion and blue eyes like her dad, the other had Mediterranean colouring like her Mum. If you saw them together, you would not think they were full sisters."

That is what has happened to my dcs (on profile)
DD dark blonde blue/grey eyed
DS mediterranean colouring

DH actually has dark hair and blue/grey eyes
I have mediterranean colouring.

I know one lady whose father was from pakistan and she had all his colouring but her dd has the most amazing shock of white blonde hair with blue eyes.

Scarah - Adultery is but one option. You say it didn't happen and I believe you Another is the possibility that babies may have been accidentally switched at the hospital (sorry, but this would be the first thing I would think of if I was given a brown eyed baby in hospital).

If not, I hear immaculate conception is also a possibiity .

Any of the above is more plausible than two light blue eyed parents making a brown eyed offspring.