Blue eyes and green eyes children. What eye color will the child have? This is useful to know

The color of a child’s eyes is determined by genetics and nothing else. This science makes it possible, at least to some extent, to find out a lot about your baby, what he will look like, and even what diseases he will inherit. But unfortunately, moms and dads won’t be able to know 100% whether their beloved baby will look at you with blue, brown or green eyes.

Eye color of a newborn baby

All babies are born with blue eyes. And this is far from a myth, although there is a percentage of babies who are born with a dark iris. It all depends on the amount of melanin - a pigment that saturates our skin with a beautiful dark shade, and our eyes with a dark chocolate color. Babies, when born, have practically no melanin (there is a very small amount of pigment), therefore light color skin and Blue eyes- norm and standard. Although, if both parents are dark-skinned and everyone in the family is dark-eyed, the child may be born with light brown eyes, since they have more pigment in the iris than those with light eyes. Over time, melanin appears and accumulates more and more in the iris of the eyes, and they can change their color.

There are exceptions, for example, if the pigment is completely absent, the baby may be born with red eyes, like albino eyes, because its capillaries are completely visible. Another exception is the disease heterochromia, in which case the baby will be born with eyes different color, for example, one is gray, the other is green-brown.

When does a child's eye color change?

Thanks to genetic data, many babies change their eye color in favor of the one laid down by their parents (the dominant gene of one of the parents). Or rather, it changes on its own, at the age of about 9 months, sometimes earlier, but mostly later.

The exact and final eye color of a child can be seen at the age of two years. Some children's eyes may darken even at three or four years old. There are known cases that already in adulthood, at school, for example, children acquired a different eye color, from bright blue irises they turned into brown eyes. When enough melanin has accumulated, then the eyes decide on color.

In general, eye color is determined by genetics, but if we talk specifically about the shade itself, then the amount of melanin in the iris of the eye plays a role; how much more or less there is of it depends on whether the child will have blue, green, or brown color.

What color will the child's eyes be?

It is not necessary that eye color can change from gray to brown. Even if the parents are proud owners of dark brown eyes, the baby may inherit a light shade from distant relatives, for example, a great-grandfather or great-great-grandmother. Genetic tests, tests and tasks can, although not 100%, reveal the secret of what eye color the child will have after birth.

It all depends on what color eyes the parents have. Their DNA contains dominant and recessive genes that are responsible for eye color and other things, so here is the gene dark shade irises - dominant, that is, the winner, it is stronger, which means it will easily defeat the recessive, weak gene for light eyes, blue or light green.

There are exceptions when both parents are brown-eyed, but the child, on the contrary, has a light eye shade. There is nothing surprising in this, since genes are mixed over generations, and one gene may be lost, but found in your baby. For example, when a light-skinned couple gives birth to a dark-skinned baby, and having done everything genetic tests It becomes clear that in the family of the parents, several generations ago, there was, for example, a dark-skinned great-great-grandfather.

Blue eye color in a child

It would seem, what is the difference between blue and blue eyes, by and large. But science and medicine think differently. Let's look a little more closely, the eye has an outer (ectodermal) and an inner (endodermal) layer of the iris, the inner layer is filled with melanin, to a greater or lesser extent. But the outer one, especially in infants, contains a tiny fraction of pigment, and the less of it, as well as the less density of the ectodermal (outer) layer of the iris, the brighter and lighter the color of the child’s eyes.

But do not be mistaken that the eye has fibers of blue color, this is wrong. When light falls on the stroma (a layer of eye tissue consisting of fibers and vessels) of the iris, it is scattered, some rays are absorbed by the endodermal layer (the inner one filled with melanin), and some are reflected, it all depends on the frequency of the rays (high frequency and low frequency rays). Thus, we see a certain eye color in the baby, in this case blue.

Gray or blue eye color in a child

The gray and blue color of the baby's eyes is also due to the density of the outer shell of the iris. The more densely packed the fibers (the fibers of the outer layer have a lightish tint) of the ectodermal layer of the iris, the lighter the tint they will have. Light grey eyes– the fiber density of the outer layer is very high.

Interestingly, blue and gray eyes are predominantly found among Europeans. Today, this simple and unpretentious eye shade (meaning blue) appeared as a result of a mutation in our genes. This happened about 8 thousand years ago; before that there were no people with a similar blue tint. Therefore, we can say that blue eye color in a child is not uncommon.

Green eye color in a child

People practically never have completely green eyes; this is rare, since usually babies have eyes with green tint, marsh-colored or interspersed with brown dots, such eyes are also called “honey eyes”. But no matter what shade of green a child’s eyes are, this is due to a small amount of melanin pigment.

Also green color A child’s eye appears due to the presence in the outer layer of the iris of another pigment that has a light brownish tint, lipofuscin. Because of which, together with scattered light and rays that absorb the inner pigmented layer of the iris, various shades of green are obtained, from light to dark, swampy.

Along with green eyes, the child, judging by genetic statistics, also gets the gene that determines red hair color. And one more fact: there are many more green-eyed girls and women on the planet than men. It is also interesting that lipofuscin has the ability to both accumulate and disappear from cells, which is probably why people have chameleon eyes only when their base eye color is green.

Brown and black eye color in a child

Brown eyes, because the gene that carries this information shade, is dominant, the most common. The world's most a large number of people with brown eyes. A large amount of melanin pigment in the iris of a baby’s eye determines this shade.

A few words about the black tint of the baby’s eyes, not brown, but black. Is not a rare event, but is common among Asians. The fact is that the amount of pigment in the outer layer of the iris is very large; from birth, babies' eyes become very dark. Light, when it hits the iris and stroma, is completely absorbed, so other shades are not visible.

It is interesting that the largest number of brown-eyed children are born in countries with hot climates, for example, in South America and Africa. It's all about genetics and such an interesting thing as evolution. Nature gave us a great chance to adapt to the weather and climatic conditions, because in warm countries it is very sunny, a person needs to be protected from burns and heatstroke, etc. Evolution kindly provided a large amount of melanin to peoples living in hot countries, thereby protecting them from the scorching sun. But this is not 100% of cases; there is always a chance that the child’s eye color will be something you have never even seen.

The babies even have yellow and purple eyes. The purple tint is very rare, practically never found, such an interesting anomaly is almost always caused by albinism. This also applies to red-eyed newborn babies, through the discolored iris and due to the complete absence of melanin, the blood vessels and capillaries become illuminated. Therefore, it is difficult for people with albinism to look at the sun, it is painful and even dangerous.

This is interesting:

Eye color may change. Most often this happens: in extreme cold; when changing artificial light to daylight; when changing the color of clothes. Eyes of blue, gray and green shades are most susceptible to such fluctuations.

About 1% of people on the globe have a different color of the left iris

and right eye.

On average, 1 person in 20 thousand is born with a so-called albino.

Iris human eye individual. It can be used to determine a person's identity, just like fingerprints.

The whites of the eyes help to better determine the internal mood and direction of the interlocutor’s gaze.

There are only 7 primary colors that the human eye can distinguish. These colors of the rainbow are: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. In addition to the primary colors, a person can distinguish up to 100,000 shades.

You won't be able to sneeze with your eyes open!

All future parents are burning with curiosity about what their long-awaited baby will be like. Are they worried about what kind of eyes the child will have: brown - like dad or blue - like mom? It turns out that color can be determined with some degree of probability based on research conducted in this area. There are certain indicators of how exactly it is inherited this aspect appearance from a scientific point of view. Moreover, it is worth considering that a baby will be born with one shade, and over time will change it to another.

With 90% confidence, scientists will tell you what kind of eyes children are born with - absolutely everything, without exception. With blue ones! Only the remaining 10 percent may have a different color, due to the individual characteristics of the body and heredity.

Up to 4 years of age (for some this happens earlier, for others a little later), the baby will develop his own eye color. Blue can darken to brown when exposed to sunlight, or it may simply take on a slightly different color. By the age of 4, the child has established the shade that will remain with him for the rest of his life. It can be brown, green, blue, amber and even dark red. Why is this happening? From a scientific point of view, there are several hypotheses regarding this issue.

It is very exciting and interesting to imagine what eye color your baby will have, just as it is interesting to watch the child’s growth and development. Regardless of eye color, all children are very active and inquisitive; they learn about the world around them, exploring it with their own hands.

Children between two and five years old are most active; at this same age, curiosity peaks, which sometimes ends with dirty, dirty palms and a head smeared with paint. Therefore, it is always worth remembering the child’s hygiene. But you should be extremely careful when choosing children's washing cosmetic products. Study the composition of the products. If you notice the presence of odium lauryl/Laureth Sulfate or CocoSulfate, it is better to return such a product to the shelf. Such substances are extremely dangerous and can cause various irritations.

Professionals advise using only natural cosmetic products, without dangerous impurities and preservatives. Many leading cosmetologists recommend natural products from the Mulsan Cosmetic company (mulsan.ru), created on the basis natural ingredients, rich in vitamins and oils, and most importantly - without dyes and sulfates. Be more attentive to your health and the health of your child.

Scientific assumptions

For many years, geneticists around the world have argued over how a child’s eye color is inherited: what plays a leading role? The most convincing hypothesis was the one that based this inheritance on Mendel’s law, which also determines hair color. It says that dark genes are dominant. Those phenotypes that are encoded by them take precedence over those individual characteristics that are caused by light genes.

A hundred years ago, such great scientists as Darwin, Mendel and Lamarck described not only patterns, but also exceptions to this general rule. They determine the inheritance of most genes:

• Children born to dark-eyed parents are predominantly brown-eyed;
• the descendants of those with light shades (blue) will most likely inherit this distinctive feature of theirs;
• a child born to parents with different eye colors may have a shade between the parents', or will take the dark one, since it is considered dominant.

From this generalized dogma grew whole science, which with maximum accuracy calculated the percentage indicating what color the child’s eyes will be inherited from his parents. If you know these scientific indicators, you can guess what your unborn baby will look like.

Chances

Based parental characteristics appearance, we can say with a certain degree of certainty what kind of eyes the child will have. The percentage ratio has long been identified by scientists:

• brown + brown: 75% - brown, 18% - green, 7% - blue;
• brown + green: 50% - brown, 37% - green, 13% - blue;
• brown + blue: 50% - brown, green will never work, 50% - blue;
• green + green: 1% - brown (very rare), 75% - green, 24% - blue;
• green + blue: brown cannot be obtained, 50% - green, 50% - blue;
• what kind of eyes a child will have if his parents have blue ones: brown will not work, 1% - green (one chance in 100), 99% - blue.

Now you can imagine your baby, even if he has not yet been born: according to Mendel's law, parents can determine the color of their child's eyes even before birth with the maximum degree of probability. There are also several interesting facts on this issue that will certainly interest many.

This is useful to know

When paying attention to the question of the eye color of their unborn child, parents can learn several interesting facts on this occasion.

1. Brown eye color is the most common.
2. Green is the rarest (less than 2% of our planet's population has it). Most green-eyed babies are born in Turkey, while in the countries of Asia, South America, and the Middle East, green eye color is an incredible rarity.
3. Blue eye color is very characteristic of Caucasian residents. Icelanders have a predominant color of green.
4. Do not be alarmed if by the age of 4 your child has developed different eye colors. This rare phenomenon is scientifically called heterochromia. This is not a disease or pathology, but simply individual feature your baby - it’s true, it’s very noticeable and attracts attention. In certain eras, such people were considered almost saints and were worshiped, calling them the chosen ones. Heterochromia was noted in actresses Mila Kunis and Kate Besward, rock star David Bowie (although in him this phenomenon was acquired as a result of injury, and not congenital).

Now you can guess with some confidence what color your future baby's eyes will be. Remember that he will change throughout the first years of his life. And you will probably love him regardless of his appearance and even more so - the color of his eyes.

The most interesting thing for future parents is to think whether the baby will be a girl or a boy, whose nose the baby will have and what kind of eyes he will have - blue, like his mother's, brown, like his grandfather's, or maybe green, like his great-grandmother's? With gender, it’s somehow simpler; on an ultrasound, if the mother wants, they will most likely tell who will be born, but what about eye color? After all, I can’t wait to imagine how the baby will be born! With appearance, everything is not so simple, but the “mirror of the soul”... You can guess the color of the child’s eyes. A table for determining the shade of the iris exists and will help with this.

Newborn's eyes

What color the baby's eyes will be is determined in the first trimester of pregnancy, or more precisely towards its end, in the eleventh week. But almost without exception, babies are born with only occasionally dark-eyed newborns. This does not mean that the color will not change. By about a year, sometimes even by three to five, the eyes become the way nature intended them, or, if you want, which genes predominate in the baby. The child's eye color changes just in time for this period of life, starting from 6-9 months. Only in brown-eyed people will it become permanent in the first months. It happens that a baby is born with eyes of different colors. This phenomenon occurs in approximately one percent of cases out of a hundred and is called heterochromia.

Melanin, which is responsible for the color of the eyes and is released when exposed to light, is simply not produced in the mother’s tummy. This explains why all newborns have the same. So, don’t torture yourself trying to discern the color of your beloved baby’s eyes. Be patient, you will soon see what the baby is like.

Child's eye color and genetics

Many people remember how they said in biology classes that brown eye color dominates the rest. This, of course, is true, but even if the eyes of both mothers and fathers are the same, there is still a small chance of giving birth to a child with green eyes or a blue iris. So put jealousy aside, turn on your brains and begin to figure out why, what and why. It's no secret that some couples break up precisely because brown-eyed parents A bright-eyed child is born.

Of course, relying on science, you can understand genetics. After all, it is she who gives the answer to the question of what eye color the child will have. There is an agreement that eyes, like hair, are inherited according to the principle of the predominance of genes responsible for dark color. Gregor Mendel, a scientist-monk, discovered this law of inheritance more than a hundred years ago. For example, with dark parents the children will most likely be the same, but with light parents it will be the other way around. A child born from people with different phenotypes may be average in hair and eye color - between both. Naturally, there are exceptions, but these are rare.

Determining eye color

Everything described above can be presented in table form. Based on it, everyone will presumably determine the color of the baby’s eyes.

It is not difficult to understand what the child’s eye color will be. The table according to which this can be done confirms Mendel’s law, but the same exceptions to the rules remain in the form of an insignificant percentage. No one knows what nature will do.

By the way, the fact that dark color is dominant at the genetic level has led to the predominance of brown-eyed people throughout the world. According to some reports, the child will not have light eye color at all in the future.

Blue-eyed people, according to scientists, did not exist at all ten thousand years ago. Everyone with this iris shade has the same ancestor, according to researchers.

Has fewer people than any other. Due to the fact that only every fiftieth resident has this shade, there are different times and among various peoples, according to tradition, they were either burned at the stake, or praised and treated with respect, endowing them with witchcraft abilities in both cases. And even today brown-eyed people have to hear that they have evil eye and they can put the evil eye on someone.

Among the various variations of the three main shades of the iris, it is very rare to find people with red eyes from blood vessels. Although they look unpleasant and even scary, they are not to blame for the fact that they were born albinos. Melanin, due to which the irises of the eyes differ in color, is practically absent in such people.

Eyes are the mirror of the soul

And one more interesting fact, some paid attention to it, some did not, but the color of the eyes of most, if not all, light-eyed people changes depending on their mood, well-being, color of clothing, and in stressful situations.

The color of a child’s eyes is no exception. The table above will not tell you about this, and there are no specific rules here. Everything is individual. Basically, when the baby is hungry, the eyes darken. and is capricious - they become cloudy. If she cries, the color is closer to green, and when she is happy with everything, the color is closer to blue. Maybe this is why they say that the eyes are the mirror of the soul.

Many parents of the unborn baby and their relatives try to determine the color of the child’s eyes. The table created for this helps them, of course. But it’s more important that the baby is born healthy. And it is much more interesting to watch how the baby will change and what his eyes, nose, hair will become, and not know in advance. The little one will grow up, and you will see whether he is bright-eyed or vice versa.

Eyes are the mirror of the soul. Probably everyone has heard this expression. But what is hidden behind this mirror? For thousands of years, sorcerers and witches have tried to unravel the mystery of eye color. Some eye colors were worshiped, others, on the contrary, were declared “witchy”. Today everything has become much simpler and more prosaic. Genetic scientists can most likely predict what eye color a child will have based on the eye color of his parents. Let's take a closer look at this issue.

Eye color is inherited by a child from its parents according to Mendel's basic laws and is determined by the amount of melanin pigment in the iris. The same pigment, by the way, is responsible for hair color, as well as for human skin tone. Among the various spectrum of colors and shades, at one pole there will be blue eyes (the amount of melanin in them is very low), and at the other - brown eyes (the amount of melanin is maximum). In the interval between these poles all other colors are located.

It is possible to determine the future eye color, but do not be surprised if the newborn turns out to have eyes that do not resemble either his mother or father.

Interestingly, 90% of babies are born blue-eyed. As they age, their irises will change color.

This happens because melanin will be produced and accumulated in it until the eyes acquire the shade that is genetically determined. This happens at about one year of age, but it is better to talk with certainty about the final eye color at 3-4 years.

The influence of genetics on a child's eye color

According to the basic laws of genetics, the color of the iris is determined by six different genes. Among them there are dominant genes, that is, stronger ones. Those external signs, for which they are responsible, take superiority and manifest themselves in appearance. There are recessive genes. They are weaker. And although these genes are present in the genotype, they may not appear in appearance.

It is traditionally believed that genes for dark colors are dominant, and genes for light colors are recessive.

However, it is a mistake to think that a child with brown-eyed parents will necessarily have brown eyes. The fact is that the baby copies two versions of one gene (they are called alleles): one from the mother, the second from the father. In each such pair, one allele will necessarily be dominant, but the child may also receive a recessive allele. And the trait transmitted by him can appear in appearance even after a generation. Therefore, grandparents can also contribute to the formation of the baby’s eye color.

The genes that transmit eye color interact with each other according to certain patterns, knowing which, you can find out the eye color of the unborn child even before his birth with an accuracy of 90%.

Interaction of genes that determine eye color

As can be seen from the table, it is possible to predict with maximum accuracy that blue-eyed parents will have a child with blue eyes. And only 1% allow a green-eyed miracle to appear in such a family. But this chance immediately increases to 50% if in a pair one parent has blue eyes and the other has green eyes. A child with a combination of brown and blue eyes will have the same chances.

But even if both parents are green-eyed, it cannot be guaranteed that this eye color will be passed on to their baby. This probability is only 75%. Another 24% is given to blue eyes, and there is even a 1% chance of having a brown-eyed baby.

Mom has brown eyes and dad has green eyes? In half the cases the child will be brown-eyed. But the possibility that he will pass on his father’s green eyes is not so small: as much as 37.5%. And again, an unexpected result is possible! 12.5% ​​allow such a couple to have a blue-eyed baby.

If both parents have brown eyes, then in 75% of cases the child also inherits this iris color. Another 19% may have the gene responsible for the formation of green eyes, and only 6% of babies may turn out to be blue-eyed.

Therefore, it is difficult to make any predictions about a child’s eye color. The debate among geneticists on this topic has not yet subsided. The most experienced specialists can give the correct answer to this exciting question only in 90% of cases.

• Since melanin is produced under the influence sun rays, eye color even depends on what country a person was born in. How less sun, the lighter the eyes and hair.
• Green is the rarest eye color on Earth. And the fact that the gene that transmits it is recessive suggests that the number of green-eyed people will only decrease.
• Brown eye color is the most common in the world. But the Baltic countries are an exception.
• In purebred Russians, the most common eye colors are gray and blue.
• All people with blue eyes are descended from a common ancestor. It has been established that 6000-10000 years ago there were no blue-eyed people, and then a genetic mutation occurred, which led to the emergence blue color eye. Most blue-eyed people live in Northern Europe and the Baltic countries. For example, in Estonia, there are 99% of them.
• Yellow eye color (amber) is called “wolf eyes” because this rare eye color for humans is common among animals such as wolves, cats, owls, eagles, pigeons and fish.
• Eye color changes not only in babies, but also in older people. The eyes turn pale, “fade”, which is explained by the loss of transparency of the mesoderm layer.
• The red color of the eyes in albinos is associated with a complete lack of melanin and is determined by the blood in the blood vessels of the iris.

In conclusion, I would like to note that the color of the eyes of an unborn child is determined only by nature. None traditional methods, signs, calculations of days of conception and horoscopes cannot be guaranteed to influence this process and activate the desired gene. Which means you shouldn’t trust them. And by and large, it doesn’t matter at all what color your baby’s eyes will be. The main thing is that he grows up healthy and happy. And this completely depends on you – the parents!

We do not choose the color of our eyes, the shape of our ears and nose - these and many other features are inherited from our parents and distant ancestors, the existence of which we can only guess. The quality of vision, hearing or smell does not depend on the shape of the organ of perception, but family traits are sometimes something like a certificate of membership in a clan. Some families are famous for their tall stature, while in others the “trick” is protruding ears or club feet. The inheritance of eye color is not one of the strictly transmitted traits, but there are still certain patterns.

Eye color: diversity and genetics

There are 7 billion people living on Earth, each of whom has a set of individual traits. The color of the iris is one of the features that remains virtually unchanged in an adult, although in older people it loses its brightness.

Scientists counted several hundred possible shades and classified them. For example, according to the Bunak scale, the rarest are yellow and blue irises. The Martin Schultz scale classifies black eyes as rare. There are also anomalies: in albinos with complete absence white iris pigment. Interesting research on how the unequal color of two eyes is inherited.

Formation of iris color

The iris consists of two layers. In the anterior, mesodermal layer is the stroma, which contains melanin. The color of the iris depends on the distribution of the pigment. The color of the posterior, ectodermal layer is always black. The exception is albinos, who are completely devoid of pigments.

Basic colors:

Blue and cyan

The iris fibers are loose and contain a minimum of melanin. There is no pigment in the shells; reflected scattered light creates the impression of blue. The thinner the stroma, the brighter the azure. Almost all people are born with heavenly eyes; this is the common eye color for all babies. Genetics in humans manifests itself towards the end of the first year of life.

In blue-eyed people, the whitish collagen fibers in the stroma are more densely distributed. The first blue-eyed people appeared on the planet about 10,000 years ago thanks to a gene mutation.

Blue-eyes inhabit mainly the north of Europe, although they are found throughout the world.

Grey

With a high collagen density in the outer layer of the membrane, the iris is gray or blue-gray. Melanin and other substances can add yellow and brown impurities to the color of the iris.

Many gray-eyed people live in the north and east of Europe.

Green

It appears when yellow or light brown pigment and diffused blue or cyan are mixed. With this coloring, many shades and uneven distribution across the iris are possible.

Pure green is very rare. The best chances to see them are in Europe (Iceland and the Netherlands) and Turkey.

Amber

The yellow-brown iris may have a greenish or copper tint. There are very light and dark varieties.

Olive (walnut, green-brown)

The shade depends on the lighting. Formed by mixing melanin and blue. There are shades of green, yellow, brown. The color of the iris is not as uniform as amber.

Brown

If there is a lot of pigment in the iris, a brown color is formed different intensity. People with such eyes belong to all races and nationalities; brown-eyed people make up the majority of humanity.

Black

When the concentration of melanin is high, the iris is black. Often eyeballs in black-eyed people they are yellowish or grayish. Representatives of the Mongoloid race are usually black-eyed, even newborns are born with an iris saturated with melanin.

Yellow

A very rare phenomenon, it usually occurs in people suffering from kidney disease.

How is eye color inherited?

The inheritance of eye color in humans is beyond doubt among geneticists.

• Light is formed due to a mutation in the OCA2 gene.
• Blue and green - EYCL1 gene of chromosome 19.
• Brown - EYCL2.
• Blue - EYCL3 chromosome 15.
• And the genes SLC24A4, TYR are also involved in formation.

According to the classical interpretation, the heredity of eye color occurs as follows: “dark” genes dominate, and “light” genes are recessive. But this is a simplified approach - in practice, the probability of inheritance is quite wide. The combination of genes determines eye color, but genetics can present unexpected variations.

Eye color is inherited

Almost all human babies are born with blue eyes. Inheritance of eye color in children appears approximately six months after birth, when the iris acquires a more pronounced color. By the end of the first year, the iris is filled with color, but final formation is completed later. In some children, the eye color determined by genetics is established by the age of three or four, while in others it is formed only by ten.

Inheritance of eye color in a person begins in childhood, but with age the eyes may become pale. In old people, pigments lose their saturation due to degenerative processes in the body. Some diseases also affect eye color.

Genetics is a serious science, but it cannot say with certainty what kind of eyes a person will have.

90% of the probability of eye color is determined by hereditary factors, but 10% should be left to chance. Eye color (genetics) in a person is determined not only by the color of the iris of the parents, but also by the genome of ancestors up to the fifth generation.

Eye color (genetics) in a child

The established idea that eye color is literally inherited is erroneous and outdated. A child of a brown-eyed father and mother may well be blue-eyed if one of the grandparents or more distant ancestors had light eyes.

To understand how eye color is inherited, it should be taken into account that each person inherits the genes of his mother and father. In these pairs - alleles, some genes can dominate over others. If we talk about a child’s inheritance of eye color, the “brown” gene is dominant, but the “set” may consist of recessive genes.

Probability of a child's eye color

It can be predicted with a high degree of certainty that the child will be born blue-eyed, but the iris will change with age. It’s definitely not worth drawing conclusions at birth, since the inheritance of eye color in children does not appear immediately.

For many years, geneticists could not come to a common opinion on how eye color is inherited in children. The most convincing hypothesis was that of the Austrian biologist and botanist Gregor Johann Mendel, who lived in the 19th century. The abbot in his teaching, using the example of inheritance of hair color, suggested that dark genes always dominate light ones. Subsequently, Darwin and Lamarck developed the theory and came to a conclusion about how eye color is inherited.

Schematically, the patterns of inheritance of eye color by children can be described as follows:

• Brown-eyed or black-eyed parents will have dark-eyed children.
• If the parents are light-eyed, the child will inherit their eye color.
• A child born from parents with dark and light eyes will inherit a dark (dominant) or medium iris color.

Science, which grew from these observations and generalizations, calculated the heredity of eye color in children as accurately as possible. Knowing how eye color is inherited, you can fairly accurately determine which eyes your descendant will inherit.

How is eye color inherited in children?

There cannot be one hundred percent certainty in one result, but the child’s likely inheritance of eye color can be predicted quite accurately.

Eye color (genetics) in a child:

1. With two brown-eyed parents, a child inherits their eye color in 75% of cases, the probability of getting green is 18%, and blue is 7%.
2. Green and brown eyes of father and mother determine the inheritance of eye color by the child: brown - 50%, green - 37%, blue - 13%.
3. Blue and brown eyes of mom and dad mean that the child should not have green eyes. The child can be brown-eyed (50%) or blue-eyed (50%).
4. For a green-eyed couple, the likelihood of having a baby with brown eyes is very small (1%). Eyes will be green (75%) or blue (24%).
5. A child born from a union of green-eyed and blue-eyed partners cannot have brown eyes. Eye color (genetics) is equally likely to be green or blue.
6. And also cannot be born brown-eyed child with blue-eyed parents. With 99% accuracy, he will inherit his parents' eyes and there is a small chance that his iris will be green (1%).

Interesting facts about eye color. Genetics in practice

• Most people on Earth have brown eyes.
• Only 2 percent of people look at the world with green eyes. Most of them are born in Turkey, but in Asia, the East and South America they are a real rarity.
• Many representatives of the peoples of the Caucasus have blue eyes.
• Icelanders are a small nation, but most of them are green-eyed.
• Eyes of different colors are an almost unique phenomenon, but this is not a pathology. Multi-colored eyes always attracted attention.
• Grass-colored eyes are often combined with red hair. Perhaps this explains the uniqueness - the Inquisition considered red-haired and green-eyed girls to be witches and mercilessly exterminated them.
• The iris of albinos is practically devoid of melanin; blood vessels are visible through the transparent membrane, so the eyes become red.
• At birth, a person receives eyes of a ready size. The ears and nose continue to grow slowly throughout life, but the eyeballs remain the same.
• All blue-eyed people share a common ancestor. The genetic mutation that resulted in the appearance of the first blue-eyed man appeared 6 to 10 thousand years ago.

It is difficult to predict exactly what the eyes of an unborn child will be like, because everything must be taken into account. hereditary factors maybe not always. The color of the iris can change until the age of ten - this is within normal limits.