Our eyes are said to be the window to the soul. They fully express our experiences, joys, secrets and desires. Since ancient times, the color of the eyes was attributed to their owner special features. So, in the Middle Ages, a woman with green eyes could simply be sent to the stake, accused of witchcraft. And even now, beauties with brown eyes sometimes hear whispers behind their backs: “Her eyes are evil, she can jinx her.” You can imagine how many families have broken up because brown-eyed parents gave birth to a blue-eyed child. But such a science as genetics has put everything in its place.
So, what kind of eyes will the child have? Imagine a situation: a child is born, with blue eyes, and by the age of 4, under the influence sunlight, the eyes take on a different color. It may be difficult to predict, but it is possible to explain the birth of “white crows”.
Genetics
And now a little about genetics. There are concepts of recessive and dominant genes that affect what eye color a child will have. So, a recessive gene is genetic information that is suppressed under the influence of a dominant gene and is not manifested in the phenotype. The manifestation of signs of a recessive gene is possible only if it is paired with the same recessive gene.
If a recessive gene is paired with a dominant one, then it does not appear, since the dominant gene suppresses it. The qualities that are determined by a recessive gene can be revealed in the phenotype of offspring only if it is paired with a certain recessive gene, that is, if this recessive gene is present in both parents. Let's take as an example the combination of parents of a Tatar man and a Russian woman, and why the result is a Tatar child, and not a combination of both parents. You can pay attention to the dominant and recessive signs of the eyes:
Determining eye color
You may ask: how can you determine the color of a child’s eyes if both parents have the same recessive and dominant genes? It's very simple, genetics did it for you a long time ago! Using a special tablet, you can see the likelihood of what kind of eyes your child will have:
- If both parents have brown eyes, the child has a 75% chance of brown eyes, 18.75% of green eyes, and 6.25% of blue eyes.
- If one of the parents is green-eyed and the other has brown eyes, the child has a 50% chance of brown eyes, 37.5% of green eyes, and 12.5% of blue eyes.
- If one parent has blue eyes and the other has brown eyes, then the child will have either brown or blue eyes with an equality of 50%, and the appearance of a child with green eyes is almost impossible. With the exception of some genetic factors.
- If both parents have green eyes, the child’s chance of having green eyes is 75%, the chance that he will have blue eyes is 25%, and the chance of having brown eyes is negligible, but it still exists.
- If one parent has green eyes and the other has blue eyes, then the child has a 50/50% chance of being either green-eyed or blue-eyed, with no chance for brown eyes.
- Well, pairs of parents who both have blue eyes will produce a blue-eyed child with a 99% probability, and a green-eyed child with a 1% probability.
Sometimes, quite rarely rare colors eyes, such as black-yellow, or snake-like, gray-brown-green, or iridescent, but a rare genetic phenomenon - heterochromia, allows a person to be born with absolutely with different eyes. Also, eye color may change in the case of certain diseases or childhood injuries.
And finally, the conclusion. In principle, the eye color of parents and children should match, but if it happens otherwise, don’t be nervous and accuse someone of cheating, perhaps you have dominant or recessive genes that you don’t even know about!
Eye color is a unique feature that accompanies a person throughout his life. It is determined genetically and depends on many factors. Young spouses always want to know how to determine the eye color of the unborn child, and whether it is possible modern stage development of science. The answer is positive - genetics and statistics help to tell what shade of iris your son or daughter will inherit from you.
Eye color is determined by the amount of melanin pigment in the outer layer of the iris. In addition to the concentration of melanin, the number and thickness of the fibers plays a role. connective tissue in the same layer of the iris.
What colors do people have eyes?
- Blue – little melanin, fibers intercellular substance thin;
- Gray – there is little melanin, but the connective tissue fibers are denser;
- Green - more melanin than blue-eyed, the quantity and quality of fibers may vary;
- Brown - the concentration of melanin is even greater, the characteristics of the fibers may vary.
There are two extreme options:
- Red – complete absence of melanin, the shade is determined by the color of the blood flowing through the vessels (with albinism, the hair will also be white);
- Black – the maximum amount of pigment.
Parents often ask the question: “What is the most common eye color on the globe?” Researchers have found that the majority of the world's inhabitants are brown-eyed.
Dark eyes are typical for residents of warm regions and are more common among representatives of the Negroid and Mongoloid races. Light shades of the iris arose later in the process of evolution, when the ancestors of people began to settle in the northern territories of our planet.
The color of the iris can change throughout life under the influence of age, weather conditions, exposure physical factors and some diseases. The shade of the eyes is also influenced by a person’s mood, his general emotional condition and how many hours he sleeps. When we are happy or in love, the color of our eyes appears brighter to others.
Modern data suggest that a trait such as eye color is encoded by two genes located on chromosomes 15 and 19 - HERC2 and EYCL1. Each of them can be presented in two variants (alleles) - dominant and recessive. Every person has two copies of each gene, received from their mother and father.
| Mother's eye color | |||||
| Father's eye color | Children | Brown | Green | Blue | Grey |
| Brown | Brown eyes | Brown-eyed | Brown eyes | Brown eyes | |
| Blue eyes | Blue eyes | Grey-eyed | |||
| Green-eyed | Green-eyed | Green-eyed | |||
| Green | Brown-eyed | Green-eyed | Blue eyes | Green-eyed | |
| Green-eyed | Blue eyes | Green-eyed | Grey-eyed | ||
| Blue eyes | |||||
| Blue | Brown eyes | Green-eyed | Blue eyes | Blue eyes | |
| Green-eyed | Blue eyes | Grey-eyed | |||
| Blue eyes | |||||
| Grey | Brown-eyed | Grey, | Blue eyes | Grey-eyed | |
| Green-eyed | Green-eyed | Grey-eyed | |||
| Grey-eyed | |||||
If mom has brown hair and dad has blue
Let's consider the option when mom has brown eyes and dad has blue eyes. Such parents may give birth to children with brown eyes, or less often, the color of the child’s eyes will be green or blue.
If mom has blue ones and dad has brown ones
It happens that the mother has blue eyes, and the father has brown eyes. For such spouses, the situation is similar to that described above (the child will have the same options for eye shade).
If mom is green and dad is brown
It happens that the mother has a green iris, and the father has a brown one. Their sons and daughters may have brown, green or rarely blue eyes.
If mom has brown, and dad has gray
Genetics indicate that if a woman is the owner brown eyes, and her beloved has gray eyes, then their descendants will inherit a brown or gray tint of the iris.
If mom's are green, and dad's are blue
A green-eyed woman and a man with blue eyes are likely to give birth to children who will have green or blue color. Such parents cannot produce babies with dark eyes.
If mom has blue ones and dad has green ones
Medical consultants explain that if a spouse has green eyes and his life partner has a blue iris, then they will have the same children as their previous parents.
If mom has brown, and dad has green
Remember that a brown-eyed mother and a green-eyed father will give birth to babies with brown eyes, green or blue.
If mom's are gray, and dad's are green
What color will the babies' eyes be when the expectant mother has grey eyes, and dad’s are green? They should expect green-eyed or gray-eyed offspring.
What eye color will the child have?
Odds or percentage of probability
Mom and dad have brown eyes, three quarters of all children born will have the same shade of eyes. The likelihood that they will have a green-eyed or blue-eyed baby is much lower - 18.75% and 6.25%, respectively.
When the first parent has brown eyes, and the second has green eyes, then in half the cases such spouses can give birth to a brown-eyed baby. In 37.5% of cases, their son or daughter will have a green iris, and only 12.5% of the heirs will have blue eyes.
Heterochromia
Heterochromia is a rare natural phenomenon, which refers to the presence of different eye colors in one person, caused by heterogeneous synthesis of the melanin pigment. Heterochromia can occur both within one iris and in each eye separately.
In Medieval Europe, many people with different eye colors were considered related to other world. Nowadays, some politicians, actors and singers have this feature (Tim McIlroth, Alice Eve, etc.). Modern medicine has established that this condition most often does not pose a danger to the child’s life.
But parents need to be careful and, in case of any vision problems, show the baby with different eyes to an ophthalmologist, since heterochromia can be a companion to certain diseases (a genetic test may need to be performed).
If heterochromia appears in an adult, this is always evidence pathological process(inflammation, tumor, metabolic disorder, or injury) that develops in a part of the body.
How to determine eye color in newborns?
All people are born with blue or blue eyes. At what age can you see the real shade of a baby’s iris, and at how many months does a child’s eye shade change? Only after six months to a year of life on Earth does the child begin to develop the final color of the iris, which will remain for the rest of his life.
Permanent color of the iris is formed up to 2-4 summer age. In addition, teenagers can expect surprises during puberty, when changes in hormonal balance begin and sometimes eye color changes again.
The unique shade of the eyes is a miracle given to us by nature. Thanks to genetics, today future parents can not only imagine what eye color their future child will have, but also give birth to a beautiful, healthy baby.
Character by eye color
If before the birth of a baby parents are only interested in the gender of their future child, then later they are concerned with one question - what kind of eyes the child will have. The pattern chart will fortunately help determine what eye color they can expect. Determining this requires knowledge school curriculum about recessive and dominant genes, but in the modern information world there is no need to spend hours in libraries, covered with a bunch of books about biology. All you have to do is go online and get the corresponding table.
Despite the fact that even it will not give one hundred percent accuracy in predicting eye color, this does not stop parents. Read more about genetic connection eye colors between relatives and we'll talk in this article.
Eye color - what factors does it depend on?
According to Gregor Mendel's law on the transmission of hereditary characteristics, What is passed on to a child from his parents is not only his appearance or character traits behavior, but also eye color. This pattern can be explained by the structural features of the iris, or more precisely, by the presence of melanin pigment in it and its quantity. This pigment is also responsible for appearance skin and the color of a person's hair.
Note! Studying the spectrum color range, scientists have found that blue eyes, due to a small amount of melanin, in most cases remain at one pole. And due to the large amount of pigment, brown eyes, accordingly, will be on the other. If we talk about all other colors, they are approximately in the intervals between the previously mentioned poles.
You can predict using the necessary table and the results of numerous scientific studies, but such information cannot be called absolutely reliable, so parents should not be surprised later that the results of their calculations did not coincide with the appearance of the newborn. According to statistics, 9 out of 10 babies have blue eyes at birth, but over the years the color of the iris may change. This normal phenomenon, so if your child's eyes gradually change color, don't panic.
Age-related changes are associated with the fact that melanin accumulates in the iris permanent basis up to changing the eyes to a shade determined by genetics. As a rule, such changes are observed as early as 12 months of age, but there may be exceptions. The complete transformation of eye color reaches its final stage, usually at the age of 2 to 3 years, sometimes the process drags on up to 4 years.
What kind of eyes do children have at birth?
The formation of the shade of the moving diaphragm of the baby’s eye occurs in the later stages of pregnancy, but immediately after birth, almost all children explore the world through gray eyes with a slight blue tint. Sometimes newborns have brown or dark, almost black eyes. But, as noted earlier, the original color changes over time, so children do not remain with blue or brown eyes for the rest of their lives.
If with brown-eyed children everything is quite simple - the formation of their permanent color occurs during the first months - then with other colors of the iris everything is much more complicated. As a rule, children's visual organs can change their color until they are 4-5 years old.
On a note! In rare cases (about 1 in 100 children), the eyes are different different shades. This phenomenon is called in medicine. This a rare event, which can be congenital or acquired.
Many parents wonder why their newborn's eyes are not a consistent color. The answer is quite simple: despite the genetic characteristics of the body, the synthesis of the melanin pigment is activated not while the baby is in the womb, but immediately after birth.
From a genetic point of view
The color of the iris is influenced by certain genes (there are only 6 of them). Of these genes, several are dominant, that is, superior to others. Therefore, only those will take superiority external differences, for which dominant genes are responsible. There are other genes that are not as strong as the previous ones. Scientists call them recessive. The presence of weak genes, as a rule, does not appear on a person’s appearance.
Note! Scientists traditionally believe that the genes responsible for light color iris - recessive, and for darker shades - dominant.
It would be wrong to believe that in a family of parents where both mom and dad have brown eyes, the child will be like them in everything. In fact, everything is much more complicated, because the child copies genes from both the father and the mother at the same time. Each pair copied consists of a recessive and a dominant gene, so the child may end up with different traits from their parents.
An external characteristic may not be transmitted by genes immediately, but even after several generations, which is why not only parents, but also grandparents contribute to the formation of the color of the iris. The interaction of genes that are directly involved in the transmission of eye color occurs according to special patterns, thanks to which parents have the opportunity to predict the eye color of the future baby with the highest possible accuracy (more than 90%).
Eye color layouts
You can determine the color of a child’s eyes, taking into account the characteristic qualities of the parents, using a special table for determining the shade. It was developed by scientists based on research statistical research. It is possible that in a dark-eyed family a baby with blue eyes will be born. But how to determine whether their child will be green-eyed or brown-eyed? The table below will help you cope with this.
Table. Determining the color of the iris.
| Mom and Dad's eye color | Baby's eye color (probability percentage) |
|---|---|
| Brown – 75%, green – 18.75%, blue – 6.25% |
| Brown – 50%, green – 37.5%, blue – 12.5% |
| Brown – 50%, green – 0%, blue – 50% |
| Brown – 0%, green – 75%, blue – 25% |
| Brown – 0%, green – 50%, blue – 50% |
| Brown – 0%, green – 1%, blue – 99% |
It must be taken into account that all the above values are conditional, since the definition table does not provide shades (for example, gray-blue). Moreover, it cannot be called same colors gray and blue, which only confirms the conventional meaning.
According to Mendel's law, hair color is also inherited, so parents with blond hair are most likely to have a blond child. But if the hair color of the parents is different, then the child’s hair will be a more neutral color, something in between the parents’. Of course, there may be exceptions to this theory.
Diseases affecting color
Sometimes eye color is affected not only by genetic factors, but also by the development of certain diseases. For example, hepatitis or jaundice is accompanied by yellowing of the white areas of the organs of vision, which can cause the iris to become darker. Often, even a common cold or illness in children is enough for the organs of vision to become less expressive and their color to become distorted.
Doctors recommend periodic iridology testing. This diagnostic event, the essence of which is to study the organs of vision and assess the condition of the iris using modern equipment. Many pathologies provoke a change in the patient’s gaze, as well as cloudiness. At the same time, clean and clear eyes may indicate feeling good child.
There is another disease that affects eye color - albinism. Unlike the previously mentioned heterochromia, albinism is not harmless, because in addition to changing the appearance of the patient, the quality of visual functions. Albinos often experience such phenomena as eye hypersensitivity and impaired visual perception. The development of albinism is accompanied by discoloration of the iris of the eye, as a result of which it takes on a red tint. This is due to the presence blood vessels.
If parents notice that their child’s eyes have acquired an unusual appearance or have changed in color, then they should seek advice from a specialist as soon as possible. Not all diseases that provoke such changes are safe for the patient’s body, so they should not be ignored, especially if we are talking about small child. But, as practice shows, the development of serious pathologies or anomalies is determined immediately after birth, when an ophthalmologist conducts an examination in a maternity hospital.
Let's look at a few interesting facts related to eye color:
- according to statistics, the majority of the population has brown eyes, and the smallest share, 2% of the total number of inhabitants of the planet, falls on green eyed people. It's also worth noting that most green-eyed babies are born in Iceland or Turkey;
- It is quite difficult to find a person with green eyes in Eastern or Asian countries, but if we talk about people of Caucasian nationality, blue is considered the most common shade there;
- Absolutely all newborns are born with blue eyes, but over time the color develops, which, as a rule, is completed by 3-4 years. In rare cases, the final eye color is formed much earlier. This can be explained by the genetic characteristics of the organism;
- Few people know, but brown eyes are blue, which are covered with brown pigment. Thanks to the methods modern medicine you can influence the color of your eyes, for example, during surgery it can be changed to blue. But such changes will not be reflected in future offspring;
- There is a theory among scientists that blue eyes are the result genetic mutation, which is why all people with blue eyes are united by one common ancestor;
- The red color of the iris of the eyes of albinos is caused not by a change in its color, but by its complete absence. The red color itself appears due to the numerous blood vessels in the organs of vision;
- You can find people with yellow or black eyes, but in fact their iris is green or brown, respectively. This phenomenon is caused by incorrect reflection sun rays, getting into the eyes.
Using the determination table, you can predict the eye color of your future child with maximum probability. Of course, it is impossible to be absolutely accurate in predictions, because children may initially be born with eyes of different colors.
Video - What color eyes will a child have?
You can study the details in our other article.
The color of a person's eyes depends on the pigmentation of the iris, which contains chromatophores with melanin. If there is a lot of pigment, the eyes turn out brown or hazel, and people have impaired melanin production. Responsible for the light color of the eyes, which occurred not so long ago - about seven thousand years ago. Gradually it spread, but the mutated gene is recessive, so there are many more people on the planet.
In a simplified form, the laws of inheritance can be described as follows: when a germ cell is formed, the human chromosome set is divided into two halves. Only one second of a person enters the cell, including one gene responsible for eye color. When two sex cells merge to form an embryo, genes meet each other: in the area responsible for eye color, there are two genes. They will remain in the genome of the new person, but will appear in the form external signs There can only be one - a dominant one, which suppresses the action of another, recessive gene.
If there are two dominant ones, for example, those responsible for brown eye color, then the child’s eyes will be brown, if there are two recessive ones, then they will be light.
Blue-eyed child with brown-eyed parents
Brown-eyed parents can have a blue-eyed child if both have recessive genes in their genomes that are responsible for light eye shade. In this case, part of the germ cells gets the dominant, which manifests itself in the form of brown eyes, and the other part gets the recessive gene. If, during conception, cells with genes meet each other light eyes, then the child will have .
The probability of such an event is about 25%.
Much less common are situations where brown-eyed children are born to blue-eyed parents. From the point of view of the simplified laws of genetics described above, it is impossible to explain this: where could the dominant gene come from in the baby, if it does not appear in the parents, then they do not have it? And yet such cases exist, and geneticists easily explain this.
In fact, the principles of inheritance are much more complex than they seem. In humans, not one pair of genes is responsible for eye color, but a whole set in which genes inherited from many previous generations are mixed. The combinations can be very diverse, so you can never predict 100 percent what kind of eyes a child will have. Even scientists still cannot fully understand inheritance patterns: eye color can be influenced by a variety of genes in different parts of the chromosomes.
Each future mom awaits her baby with tenderness and trepidation. Who is there - a boy or a girl? Who will he look like - me or dad? What kind of character will there be, what kind of mind, what color of hair, what color of eyes?
Almost all people have at least once heard the common myth that the eye color of all newborns is sky blue. Actually this is not true. At this age, all babies actually have almost the same eye color, but it can be greyish, dull blue or bright blue. The amount of melanin pigment in infants is small; it increases during the first year of life, and it is the intensity of production that affects the final color of the child’s eyes.
This process is completed in all babies in due time, but in most cases a permanent color can be determined by the age of one year. However, the change in subtle shades in some cases lasts up to 3-4 years.
What determines the intensity of melanin production? Mainly from heredity. But you shouldn’t understand this too simply - the child’s eye color will not necessarily be the same as that of one of the parents or a mixture of their colors. It would be useful to educate a jealous and prejudiced spouse on this topic in order to avoid misunderstandings.
So, the color of a child’s eyes may differ from both the mother’s and father’s. But we can offer some guesses based on parental traits.
If both parents are brown-eyed, the child will be the same in 75% of cases. Green (20%) and blue (5%) eye colors are also possible.
If one parent is brown-eyed and the other is green-eyed, then in half the cases the child will inherit, 40% green and 10% blue.
Brown-eyed and blue-eyed parents will also receive a brown-eyed child in 50% of cases, the remaining 50% will have blue eyes, but green eyes in this situation most likely will not work.
Green-eyed parents will give birth to the same child in 75% of cases, in a quarter of cases the offspring’s eyes will be blue, and in the most incredible case (<1%) родится кареглазый ребенок.
A union of blue and green eyes is unlikely to produce brown-eyed offspring, and their colors will be distributed with equal probability (50%).
And finally, two blue-eyed parents have a 99% chance of getting the same child. In 1% of cases, they will have a baby with green eyes, and such a couple is unlikely to have a brown-eyed child.
There are some cases where this rule may not apply. Sometimes you meet people with an unusual appearance - their eyes are different colors. Although the times have passed when they were considered witches, supporters of the devil and avoided in every possible way, such an appearance feature still surprises and attracts attention. However, it does not cause any damage to attractiveness.
The baby may be born an exact copy of you or, on the contrary, will not resemble you at all; he may have your husband’s eyes, your mother’s curls or your father’s freckles. Is it important? It is probably more important to do everything possible so that your child grows up as a happy and worthy person - this inheritance will be your main gift to him.
Each pregnant woman often thinks about who her baby will be like, what he will inherit from dad and what from mom. Future parents are especially concerned about the question of what color the child’s eyes will be if mom and dad have different eye shades. For example, if a father has blue eyes and a mother has brown eyes, what color might their child's eyes be?
Sometimes with parents It causes great bewilderment when a child is born with blue eyes, and both parents are brown-eyed. In this case, the new dad may even experience causeless jealousy and look for ways to eliminate the possibility of another paternity. Meanwhile, in 90% of cases, children are born with blue eyes and only the remaining 10% may have a different color.
Changes eye color in newborns up to 4 years old, before this age the blue color may darken to brown or take on only a slightly different shade. But in any case, the color of the iris depends on heredity; most often, by the age of 4, the baby’s eyes become similar to one of the parents or close relatives.
It is a mistake to think that if both parents brown-eyed, then the child will definitely have brown eyes. The hereditary gene for blue eyes can be passed on through generations. Therefore, if the great-grandmother or great-grandfather were blue-eyed, then they can also contribute to the formation of the baby’s eye color.
