Hooray for Genetics!
Because I find all things genetic to be fascinating (I get it from my mom...hahaa get it? But seriously I do) I dedicate this post to the genetics of eye color.
The subject in the lab this morning and I were talking as I was taking her electrodes off, and I commented on how much I liked her hair (no, I'm not a weirdo, she had awesome hair). I told her that I used to have black hair and blue eyes but now I have brown hair and green eyes, so we started talking about the genetics of eye color. She is hispanic and her entire extended family has brown eyes, so she was saying how she would never have a child with light eyes. Me, being curious about genetics in general and eye color as well, decided to use the trusty computer to see what info I could find.
Well....apparently the whole green/blue is recessive, brown is dominant standby works, but not really. It's very complicated. Apparently we have these two chromosomes, numbers 15 and 19. On 15 there is a brown allele and a blue allele. The brown one is always dominant. Over on 19, there is a blue allele and a green allele. Green is dominant over blue, but brown is dominant over green. SO....to have green eyes you must have the green allele on 19 and the blue allele on 15. Not too hard to understand. However, these are the only chromosomes that scientists know about so far, there is a good chance there are more, since these don't explain gray, hazel, golden brown, or black eyes. It's interesting, nonetheless.
So, I went even further and found this really cool site: http://museum.thetech.org/ugenetics/eyeCalc/eyecalculator.html
If you go there, you can figure out the most likely eye color combinations your kids would have. I put in Andrew and I, just to see, and it told me that our kids would have a 50% chance of having brown eyes, a 38% chance of having green eyes, and an 11% chance of having blue eyes. That sounds about right. Then I put in my mom and dad and saw that it was 50/41/8 respectively. Well, my two brothers have brown eyes and I have green so that seems to fit too.
Anyway some of you may not find this as intriguing as I do, but the eye color calculator is still really cool.
The subject in the lab this morning and I were talking as I was taking her electrodes off, and I commented on how much I liked her hair (no, I'm not a weirdo, she had awesome hair). I told her that I used to have black hair and blue eyes but now I have brown hair and green eyes, so we started talking about the genetics of eye color. She is hispanic and her entire extended family has brown eyes, so she was saying how she would never have a child with light eyes. Me, being curious about genetics in general and eye color as well, decided to use the trusty computer to see what info I could find.
Well....apparently the whole green/blue is recessive, brown is dominant standby works, but not really. It's very complicated. Apparently we have these two chromosomes, numbers 15 and 19. On 15 there is a brown allele and a blue allele. The brown one is always dominant. Over on 19, there is a blue allele and a green allele. Green is dominant over blue, but brown is dominant over green. SO....to have green eyes you must have the green allele on 19 and the blue allele on 15. Not too hard to understand. However, these are the only chromosomes that scientists know about so far, there is a good chance there are more, since these don't explain gray, hazel, golden brown, or black eyes. It's interesting, nonetheless.
So, I went even further and found this really cool site: http://museum.thetech.org/ugenetics/eyeCalc/eyecalculator.html
If you go there, you can figure out the most likely eye color combinations your kids would have. I put in Andrew and I, just to see, and it told me that our kids would have a 50% chance of having brown eyes, a 38% chance of having green eyes, and an 11% chance of having blue eyes. That sounds about right. Then I put in my mom and dad and saw that it was 50/41/8 respectively. Well, my two brothers have brown eyes and I have green so that seems to fit too.
Anyway some of you may not find this as intriguing as I do, but the eye color calculator is still really cool.
Comments
:-P
Seriously... everyone in my family has blue eyes, but mine are the only ones that are slate blue instead of sky-blue. Creeeeeeepy!