Many people are unique in their physical features and attributes. What makes a person truly themself, many times, is how they look. Looks may not be everything , but they play a great deal of importance in our own identities. One thing that signifies a person’s uniqueness and features are their eye color. Whether they are blue, green, hazel, brown, or even gray.
Eye color comes directly from genetics.
We often hear that when individuals have children, comments are made about “the baby having dad’s eyes,” or even mom’s eyes. This is because eye color comes from genetics and DNA.
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Today, people have various different colored eyes, but this was not always the case.
As it turns out, everyone had brown eyes at one point in time. The blue-eyed bombshells that we often see today were nowhere to be found, actually.
Brown eyes changed because of a mutation in genetics.
According to the University of Copenhagen’s Hans Rudolf Litchoff Eiberg, Ph .D., the reason that the “brown eyes for everyone” rule changed was due to a genetic mutation that limited the amount of melanin in a person’s eyes.
Melanin is the pigment that gives our eyes color.
The less melanin that is in a person’s eyes, the lighter their eyes become. The same is to say that if a person has a lot of melanin, their eyes are darker.
Green eyes, however, are not linked to a mutation.
As it turns out, scientists believe and concluded that the eye color change from brown to green has to do with the amount of melanin in the iris. But, blue-eyed individuals are vastly different.
The change in eye color comes from that one genetic mutation.
Therefore, it’s an interesting and fascinating thought to realize that any individual with blue eyes somehow is genetically related to another complete stranger with blue eyes, too. This is because they stem from the same genetic makeup.
It’s scientifically proven, too.
Through a study and analysis reported in the journal, Human Genetics , it was discovered that the group of genes that are responsible for making eyes blue stems from “one single parent.” This is known in science as a haplotype.
Tracing back the DNA and mutations thousands of years, they found something almost insane.
Conducting mapping and analyses, the team studying the blue-eyed mutations concluded that all blue-eyed individuals stem from the same ancestor, which allowed them to inherit the genetic mutation.
That’s right, if you have blue eyes, you and all your other blue-eyed friends come from one common ancestor.
You may meet a guy at a bar who also has blue eyes, or look across the room at your wife who, as well, has blue eyes and realize—you’re cut from the same cloth…biologically.
While it does not change much, it is interesting to think about.
Looking in the mirror, we may take our individual looks for granted after seeing them day after day, but finding out more about how we came to be and look the way we do is nothing but intriguing.
It goes to show you, we are always discovering more every day.
Looking back in genetic mapping, doctors claims , “It simply shows that nature is constantly shuffling the human genome, creating a genetic cocktail of human chromosomes and trying out different changes as it does so.”
Fascinating!
