Eye Color Information
There is an old expression that the eyes are the windows to the soul. Staring into a pair of rich mahogany-brown, crystal blue or mischievous green eyes can help you learn a lot about a person, and might even be the first thing that attracts you to a potential date. While most of us may think that eye color is just a beautiful assortment of random luck, DeCodeMe.com actually states that eye color "is largely genetically determined by a combination of two forms of melanin produced by melanocytes of the iris."
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Eye Color Statistics
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According to DeCodeMe.com, the most common eye color in the world is brown, followed by blue or gray. Only about one percent to two percent of the world's population has green eyes, so if you are one of the lucky few, cherish those emerald gems. About 75 percent of the eye color range is dependent upon genetic variants in one small region of chromosome 15.
How Eye Color Effects the Eye
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The colored area of the eye is called the iris, and the iris regulates the amount of light that enters the pupil, or the black area in the center of the eye that contracts when light shines on it. Eye coloration protects the eye from overexposure to the sun (UV-rays), similar to the way that the pigment in your skin protects you from sunburn. Also like in skin, melanin is what produces the shading in your eyes. Brown eyes have more melanin than blue eyes.
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The Genetics of Eye Color
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Scientists originally believed that eye color was determined by just one gene, so determining the eye color of your children could be calculated using simple statistics. Simply put, brown eyes are dominant, so two brown eyed parents will have brown eyed children, unless both parents have a recessive blue eyed gene. Then they may have a blue-eyed baby. According to DeCodeMe.com, genetic research has proven that eye color is determined by a number of genes, so parents can have children with any number of eye colors. One of these genes does have a greater effect on eye color than the others, so for most families the original theory of dominant and recessive eye color remains true.
How Eye Color is Created
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The color of your iris is determined by two types melanin produced by melanocytes, or pigment producing cells, in the iris. These types of melanin are eumelanin, which is brown, and pheomelanin, which is a reddish-yellow color. The combination of these melanin types results in three shades of eye color that include brown, yellow and gray. People who have "green" eyes actually just have yellow eyes with a hint of brown that makes their eyes appear green.
Eye Color and Age
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Eye color can change with age. Babies who are born with blue eyes that then darken to brown are simply developing more melanin as they age. Eye color can also change in adults. According to DeCodeME.com, 10 to 15 percent of individuals of European descent experience a change in eye color in their lifetimes. This usually occurs in people with light eyes that darken as they age.
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References
- Photo Credit Photo by Velo Steve
