Genetic mutation purple eyes9/25/2023 Nature is responsible for the shuffling of genes. Research began in 1996 when Professor Eiberg suggested the theory of the OCA2 gene as responsible for eye color. He and his team examined mitochondrial DNA and analyzed and compared people who had blue eyes in countries like Jordan, Denmark, and Turkey. The findings of Professor Eiberg and his team are the latest regarding genes. All blue-eyed people have a small amount of variation in the amount of melanin in their eyes, leading to the conclusion that all blue-eyed people have a common ancestor and have the same switch inherited at the same place in their DNA. Variation in eye color from brown to green is linked to the amount of melanin present in the iris. If there were no melanin then we all would be without colors in our hair, eyes, and skin, a condition known as albinism. The switch is situated in the gene adjacent to OCA2 and does not entirely switch off the gene but limits its function to reduce the production of melanin in the iris – effectively diluting brown eyes to blue. Melanin is the pigment that gives color to hair, eyes, and skin. The OCA2 is a gene that codes for P-protein, responsible for the production of melanin. A genetic mutation affected the OCA2 gene in our chromosomes which created a switch that literally switched off the ability to produce brown eyes. They found a genetic mutation that took place between 6000 – 10,000 years ago which is the reason behind the occurrence of blue eyes and the causation of all blue eyed people today.Įiberg, a professor of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, says we all had brown eyes originally. The research showed that those who have blue eyes have a single common ancestor. A YouTuber by the name of Cydnee Black shared her experience of growing up with the rare condition.A team at University of Copenhagen conducted a study in 2008 about the formation of blue eyes. People with Waardenburg Syndrome typically have hearing loss in one ear. The huge discovery not only provided more profound insight into the mysterious OCA2 gene but the analysis also helped to demystify some of the preassumptions about the early descendants of Europe.Īpart from genetic mutation, blue eyes can also be caused by Waardenburg Syndrome, a deficiency that can be passed down through family genetics that change the pigmentation of the hair, skin, or eyes. The skeletal DNA was found in Brana-Arintero, a deep cavern in the Cantabrian Mountains near Leon, Spain. Pre-farming humans were known to have munched on “a diet filled with vitamin D from eating meat, fish, and eggs, while early agriculturalists would have relied more on sunlight,” the publication notes. Lalueza-Fox, the lead author of a paper on the discovery in Nature told Forbes, that she believes it could have been caused due to diet. Back in 2014, a team of scientists discovered the 7,000-year-old skeletal remains of an African stone-age hunter who appeared to have possessed the OCA2 gene. Some researchers believe that the mutation likely originated from the northwest part of the Black Sea region where a heavy presence of agricultural migration occurred toward the northern part of Europe about 10,000 years ago. “This to me indicates very strongly that there must have been a single, common ancestor of all these people,” he added. “All of them, apart from possibly one exception, had exactly the same DNA sequence in the region of the OCA2 gene,” he explained of the extraordinary data. According to Professor Hans Eiberg from the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, at one point everyone had brown eyes, but as humans evolved, the OCA2 gene caught some sort of funky genetic mutation that prompted the chromosome to “switch off, ” reducing the production of melanin in the iris.Įiberg studied the DNA of 800 men and women with blue eyes from varying countries ranging from “fair-skinned, blond-haired Scandinavians to dark-skinned, blue-eyed people living in Turkey and Jordan.” He found that they all shared the OCA2 gene in common.
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