Have you ever wondering why your eye color is brown, blue, green or grey? Most people will say this is because of dominant and recessive traits, where brown eye color being the dominant one. However, our eyes color is far more complicate than that, eyes color is determine by multi-gene trait, not a single-gene trait. OCA2 and HERC2 genes are mainly responsible for eye color. OCA2 locates on chromosome 15 and controls almost ¾ of the blue-brown color spectrum. These genes control the amount of melanin (type of pigments) inside the iris. Melanin is produce in a specialized cells call melanocytes, which store in intracellular compartments known as melanosomes. A number of other genes (TYRP1, ASIP and ALC42A5) also function in the melanin pathway and shift the total amount of melanin present in the iris. Eye color is arranged from lightest blue to darker brown and everything in between; Brown contains highest level of melanin and blue contains minimal melanin. Red eyes color have no melanin so there is no pigment in the iris, the red color comes from blood vessels. In addition our eyes color change over time period, this is due to decrease or increase stroma in the pigment granules. A little fun fact, people with blue color eyes come from same ancestor.
Monday, December 3, 2012
Genetic of eye color
Have you ever wondering why your eye color is brown, blue, green or grey? Most people will say this is because of dominant and recessive traits, where brown eye color being the dominant one. However, our eyes color is far more complicate than that, eyes color is determine by multi-gene trait, not a single-gene trait. OCA2 and HERC2 genes are mainly responsible for eye color. OCA2 locates on chromosome 15 and controls almost ¾ of the blue-brown color spectrum. These genes control the amount of melanin (type of pigments) inside the iris. Melanin is produce in a specialized cells call melanocytes, which store in intracellular compartments known as melanosomes. A number of other genes (TYRP1, ASIP and ALC42A5) also function in the melanin pathway and shift the total amount of melanin present in the iris. Eye color is arranged from lightest blue to darker brown and everything in between; Brown contains highest level of melanin and blue contains minimal melanin. Red eyes color have no melanin so there is no pigment in the iris, the red color comes from blood vessels. In addition our eyes color change over time period, this is due to decrease or increase stroma in the pigment granules. A little fun fact, people with blue color eyes come from same ancestor.
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