Eye colour...darker the more dominate gene?

[Cherryblossom200]

Hey everyone,

I have bluey/green eyes and the father of my baby has dark brown eyes, does that mean my baby is more likely to have brown eyes as this is the more dominate gene? Or is this a myth?

Cherry x

[hellymelly]

My dds eyes went green at about 12-18m, my friend's son not until he was two. My eyes have changed colour as an adult, through my 40s they have gone greener, as though the blue element has got stronger.

[rebelfor]

I have greeny-blue, partner has dark brown and daughter's are sky blue.
We were taught at school that two brown eyed parents can have a blue eyed child but two blue eyed parents can't have a brown eyed child.

[Cherryblossom200]

Are all babies born with blue eyes then? I'm sure I heard a few friends say their babies when they were born had almost black eyes which freaked them out! Then gradually changed to their natural colour...x

[WhyOWhyWouldYou]

cockadoodle the eyes changing colour thing is a weird one. Most babies change from blue to their adult colour in a few months but some like my ds seem to take for ever to change - he was brilliant blue until 1yr, then started looking more like he was getting green eyes, by two they looked properly green by 2.25yrs theyd changed to light brown, now at 2.5 theyve finally reached his dark brown adult colour.

[ImBrian]

My df has blue eyes and my dm brown, me and my sister both have blue. But my ex had brown eyes and all 3 of our dds have brown/hazel eyes.

[mum2fourds]

My mum and dad both have green eyes....out of seven children there are three pure blue eyes....one aquamarine...one mixed brown and green eyes(strange colour)...one hazel and one dark brown.....also both parents had black curly hair...im dark blonde and two brothers have poker straight hair....obvs lots if genetic possibilities there!!

[Cherryblossom200]

Rather enjoying this genetic science lesson! I've learnt a lot :) thanks!

[thatwouldbeanecumenicalmatter]

MIL DM: Brown MIL DF: Blue...FIL DM: ? FIL DF: BLue...... (DH grandparents)

DM DM: Hazel DM DF: Brown....DF DM: Brown DF DF: Brown (my grandparents)

MIL: Brown FIL: Grey......DM: Brown DF: Brown
DH: Blue.......Me: DK Brown
DS1: Brown. DS2: Hazel

(I doubt that makes sense at all in the slightest )

[MinionDave]

I have dark brown eyes, and DH are a grey/blue. DS has blue eyes (well, 1 and 1/2 blue, half of one of his eyes is hazel ) and DD has green eyes.

[GerundTheBehemoth]

Aha! Glad to be able to reassure you

[BadRoly]

That's a shame Gerund but is reassuring too as neither of my parents were rollers

[ouryve]

This page at least explains why my mum has blue-grey eyes with hazel flecks.
It also did comment that true blue eyes are becoming rare in North America.
www.eyedoctorguide.com/eye_general/eye_color_genetics.html

Despite my very northern European colouring (pale pinkish skin, blue eyes, dark hair with red in the family in abundance, so possibly carrying it, myself) it appears that I have dry earwax.

[GerundTheBehemoth]

Badroly (good name!), sadly tongue-rolling is not a simple Mendelian trait, though it's often given as an example of one. But two non-rollers (supposedly the recessive allele) can have a roller child, and a study of 33 sets of identical twins found that in seven of the sets there was one roller and one non-roller (thank you Google for that one!). This strongly suggests that rolling/non-rolling isn't determined by just one gene, and/or isn't wholly determined by genes at all.

[PenguinsIsSleepDeprived]

Dear goodness, well I have learned something today. I had never heard of dry ear wax.

[PlumpPartridge]

How interesting! You learn something new every day.

Plenty of us recessive redheads about by the way

[BadRoly]

Gerund is tongue rolling straightforwards as taught in school? I roll, dh doesn't - 3/4 dc roll and 1 doesn't...

[divingoffthebalcony]

I used to love doing genetic crosses PlumpPartridge

However, the inheritance of eye colour is more complex than BB, Bb, Bb, bb.

Some aspects of genetics are as simple as that, but not eye colour.

Just realised that Gerund has said the same thing... oh well.

[ouryve]

Brown is dominant, so a brown eyed parent could be heterozygous giving a 50:50 chance of passing on brown or not. If the brown is passed on, then the child will have brown eyes.

No idea how green eyes work, though, in the absence of brown. DH is green grey and I'm blue. DS1 is green grey, like DH and DS1 is more blue but has a ring of green-ish.

[BadRoly]

Dh has blue/grey eyes, I have hazel eyes.
Dc 1-3 have blue/grey eyes, dc4 has brown eyes.

[GerundTheBehemoth]

The wiki page on earwax explains all. Complete with some charming photo of gunk on a cotton bud! Most Europeans have the wet kind.

[Catsmamma]

aren't eyes either Brown or NOT Brown....all the colours that are not brown are technically then same, even though we see them as different??

In my family my parents both have blue eyes, bro also blue, mine are green. (i do have a hazel eyed Aunt)

Dh have very brown eyes, both boys are the same like clones and dd is green eyed like me.

[PenguinsIsSleepDeprived]

Gerund - Bugger, just read your explanation and realised that, in my sleep deprived state I did my example the wrong way round. Should have said blue eyed parents having a brown eyed child...

What is wet and dry ear wax? Isn't wax just, well, waxy?

[GerundTheBehemoth]

I don't think that's likely to happen. Lots of recessive alleles stick around in the population indefinitely - it's only the ones that are harmful (in ways that mean the person is less likely to have children) that are likely to disappear. Dominant alleles don't wipe recessive ones out, it's just that if a person has one of each, the dominant one is the one that shows. But the person still has a 50/50 chance of passing on either version to each of their children.

[SchroSawMargeryDaw]

Mother had brown eyes and black hair, Dad had blue eyes and blonde hair. I'm blonde haired and blue eyed.

DP has darker hair and our kids both have my blonde.

[Cherryblossom200]

Gerund thanks for your informative post :) interesting stuff! I heard from someone today that due to brown eyes being the more dominant colour sometime in the not too distant future, no one will have blue eyes anymore...it will be wiped out due to the stronger gene!? Rather sad I thought x