Are blue eyes a mutation?

Scientists have tracked down a genetic mutation which took place 6,000-10,000 years ago and is the cause of the eye color of all blue-eyed humans alive on the planet today. New research shows that people with blue eyes have a single, common ancestor.

Are blue eyes a mutation of inbreeding?

blue eyes descend from a single genetic mutation means that every single person on the planet with blue eyes descended from one common ancestor. In fact, a team of geneticists at the University of Copenhagen actually traced that mutation all the way back to a single Danish family.

Why did eyes mutate to blue?

"What we're seeing with blue eye colour is a lack of melanin in the outer layer of the iris." A variation in the HERC2 gene, which sits right next to the OCA2 gene controls whether melanin is produced in the outer layer of the iris. "It's like turning a light switch on or off.

What type of mutation is blue eyes?

Blue eye color in humans may be caused by a perfectly associated founder mutation in a regulatory element located within the HERC2 gene inhibiting OCA2 expression.

What race did blue eyes come from?

"The mutations responsible for blue eye colour most likely originate from the north-west part of the Black Sea region, where the great agricultural migration of the northern part of Europe took place in the Neolithic periods about 6,000 to 10,000 years ago," the researchers report in the journal Human Genetics.

How Did Blue Eyes Evolve?

What is the rarest eye color?

Of those four, green is the rarest. It shows up in about 9% of Americans but only 2% of the world's population. Hazel/amber is the next rarest of these. Blue is the second most common and brown tops the list with 45% of the U.S. population and possibly almost 80% worldwide.

What is special about blue eyes?

Blue Eyes are More Sensitive to Light

Melanin in the iris of the eye appears to help protect the back of the eye from damage caused by UV radiation and high-energy visible “blue” light from sunlight and artificial sources of these rays.

Are colored eyes a mutation?

Some 6,000 to 10,000 years ago, a genetic mutation affecting one gene turned off the ability to produce enough melanin to color eyes brown causing blue eyes. This mutation arose in the OCA2 gene, the main gene responsible for determining eye color.

Who was the first blue eyed human?

A Stone Age man who lived about 7,000 years ago and whose buried bones were discovered in 2006 has turned out to be the earliest known person with blue eyes, a physical trait that evolved relatively recently in human history, a study has found.

Can a child have blue eyes if parents don t?

A lot. A brown eyed dad and a green eyed mom can have a blue eyed child because there are at least two eye color genes. Because of this, it is possible for both green and brown eyed parents to be carriers for blue eyes. And as carriers, they each can pass down blue eye genes to their children.

Can a black person have blue eyes?

African-Americans with blue eyes are not unheard of, but they are pretty rare. There are lots of ways for this to happen. Some possible ways an African-American person might have ended up with blue eyes are: Caucasian relatives in their ancestry (the most likely reason)

Are green eyes a mutation?

Green eyes are the most rare eye color in the world. Only about 2 percent of people in the world have naturally green eyes. Green eyes are a genetic mutation that results in low levels of melanin, though more melanin than in blue eyes. Green eyes don't actually have any color.

Did Vikings have blue eyes?

Blue eyes were very common among Northern Vikings, while brown eyes were more common in the Viking settlements of England, Ireland, and mainland Europe. In modern times, most people who claim to be of Viking descent have blonde hair and blue eyes, but that doesn't mean that all Vikings shared this appearance.

What is the most inbred family?

Mark Laita first met the Whittaker family - who are widely regarded as America's most famous inbred family - after being granted access to their weird world. The family have little contact with anyone in the outside world and when Laita first attempted to photograph the family, neighbours threatened him.

What is the evolutionary advantage of blue eyes?

Sturm suggests that blue eyed individuals may have been better able to withstand the dark days of the Neolithic European winters. Perhaps those individuals were more motivated to go out hunting and take care of themselves.

Are blue eyes really an indication of inbreeding?

However, the gene for blue eyes is recessive so you'll need both of them to get blue eyes. This is important as certain congenital defects and genetic diseases, such as cystic fibrosis, are carried by recessive alleles. Inbreeding stacks the odds of being born with such conditions against you.

Where do blue eyes come from inbreeding?

They report that a mutation just 6,000 to 10,000 years ago, by necessity in just one person, explain all the blue eyed people on the planet. (Of course, the recessive gene had to carom about, with a kiss of incest, in some small clan until double copies came together to make a blue-eyed person).

Can blue eyes see better in the dark?

While blue eyes are more sensitive to light during the day, people with blue eyes tend to see better at night – unless there are bright lights. In that case, the lack of melanin makes them as sensitive to light at night as they are during the day.

Do people with blue eyes have a higher alcohol tolerance?

According to several recent studies, eye color is a pretty good indicator of alcohol tolerance (along with pain tolerance, risk for diabetes, and hand-eye coordination). Congratulations, blue eyed drinkers, you can hold your liquor better than your dark eyed peers.

Can 2 brown eyes make blue?

The only way to present blue eyes is to inherit two copies of the blue-eyed gene. However, brown-eyed parents can pass a recessive blue-eyed gene. Therefore, two brown-eyed partners can birth a blue-eyed baby.

Can 2 blue eyed parents have a brown-eyed child?

This has to do with the fact that blue eyes are supposed to be recessive to brown eyes. This means that if a parent has a brown eye gene, then that parent will have brown eyes. Which makes it impossible for two blue-eyed parents to have a brown-eyed child -- they don't have a brown eye gene to pass on!

What is considered the prettiest eye color?

While hazel was found to be the most attractive eye color in females. When it came to the most attractive eye color in females, the results were very different. Hazel eyes topped the list as the most popular, with 65 out of 322 total matches—or 20.19 percent.

Will blue eyes become extinct?

Are red-haired, blue-eyed people going extinct? You might believe that because these genetic traits are rare, they could be diluted out of the gene pool entirely. That's not likely to happen.

Are blue eyes evil?

The color blue is often linked to evil eyes and the amulets that protect against their curses. The marketplaces and bazaars of ancient Istanbul and Cairo offered plenty of depictions of eyes painted in cobalt-blue. Across the Mediterranean coast, beads made from blue glass were fashioned into eyes.

Is grey the rarest eye color?

Unusual eye colours

Grey eyes are amongst the rarest eye colours and while many associate grey eyes with being blue, they are not quite the same despite them both having low levels of melanin. Pink and pale red eyes are also incredibly unusual eye colours and occur in people who have albinism.