For all U/w blue eyes: Blue-eyed people have a single ancestor

[EV_Ares]

Published: Jan. 31, 2008

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Jan. 31 (UPI) -- Researchers in Denmark tracked a genetic mutation showing that people with blue eyes have a single, common ancestor.

Hans Eiberg of the University of Copenhagen and his team examined mitochondrial DNA and compared the eye color of blue-eyed individuals in countries as diverse as Jordan, Denmark and Turkey.

"Originally, we all had brown eyes," Eiberg said in a statement. "But a genetic mutation affecting the OCA2 gene in our chromosomes resulted in the creation of a 'switch,' which literally 'turned off' the ability to produce brown eyes."

The switch, which is located in the gene adjacent to OCA2 does not, however, turn off the gene entirely, but rather limits its action to reducing the production of melanin in the iris -- effectively "diluting" brown eyes to blue.

Variation in eye color from brown to green can be explained by the amount of melanin in the iris, but blue-eyed individuals only have a small degree of variation in the amount of melanin in their eyes, Eiberg explained.

"From this we can conclude that all blue-eyed individuals are linked to the same ancestor," Eiberg said. "They have all inherited the same switch at exactly the same spot in their DNA."

Link: http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Health/2008/01/31/blue-eyed_people_have_a_single_ancestor/6354/

[ixion]

1. a big shout out to all my blue-eyed brothers and sisters out there... and to everyone else, for that

matter. Because in the end, we're all humans, all from the same family. :hi:

[tekisui]

6. Hey, brother!

:hi:

See you at the blue-eyed family reunion.




BTW, this is in jest. We are One People, ALL of Us.

[Ellen Forradalom]

47. Beautiful blue eyes

http://www.africancolours.net/media/10929_2_03,%20Miss%20Richard%20Wachira.jpg



My son was born with the brightest blue headlamps I'd ever seen. Took my breath away.

[sarge43]

49. Wow Ellen. Your son is stunning.

Those eyes will be the downfall of many a young lady.

[Ellen Forradalom]

50. Actually that's not my son

Here's my son:


He might well be the downfall of many a young lady, but he strikes me as much too reticent and decent-hearted for that :-)

[sarge43]

55. He's a stunner, too. Great smile that goes right up to the eyes. They are so sweet at that age.

[malaise]

75. Two lovely blue eyed boys

We have lots of green eyed people in our clan - one grandma, two aunts, one sister, two nephews and a niece. Genes rule!

[NewJeffCT]

2. so, my ex-wife was a mutant?

I knew there was something funny about her...

[La Lioness Priyanka]

62. ...

:rofl:

[NewJeffCT]

65. well

don't laugh too hard - she's almost like a negative of you physically - same height & build, only with fair skin & blue eyes. She did have auburny hair, though, it's not quite a complete negative.

And, she probably isn't as shy & reserved as you.

But, I really don't hate her or anything - just couldn't resist making the comment.

[Buzz Clik]

3. Rats. I was hoping you were going to tell me that my real grandfather is...

Paul Newman.

[Pacifist Patriot]

4. Interesting. One of my son's has blue eyes, but no one else in the family...

in recent generations. Does that mean he's a mutant or we're all related to that distant ancestor? I find this stuff totally cool and fascinating.

[LWolf]

9. Blue is recessive.

It means that your family, and the other parent's family, have passed on the recessive blue gene, and you both passed that gene on to your son.

My parents are both brown-eyed. I have blue eyes.

[Pacifist Patriot]

12. LOL! Yes, I know that.

It's just been recessed for at least three generations. Like I said. I find this stuff totally cool.

[LWolf]

13. It is.

The blue eyes on both of my sides are the 3rd generation back.

:hi:

[Pacifist Patriot]

14. Depending upon how far back, can you imagine how many people...

are related to that one individual who don't have blue eyes, may have no known relatives with blue eyes but still carry the recessive gene? One Human Family! Wish more people could think like that.

[LWolf]

70. That's an awe-inspiring concept.

It can only do us good to be a conscious part of one Human family.

[rucky]

51. Who daddy?

call Montel!

[NOLALady]

71. He's not there anymore.

I guess his comments last week were not welcome.

[gkhouston]

54. Well, if he were a Texan...

I'd say he was just a quart low on bullshit. ;-)

[northzax]

82. it, uh, means the, uh, mailman

has blue eyes, of course. or maybe the FedEx guy...

[SpiralHawk]

5. Don't it make your brown eyes blue?

...to be living under the corrupt rule of Commander AWOL and his deviant republicon homelander cronies?


LYRICS (from the Pharcycle)

Who could believe in you if what you say isn't true
If he's deceiving me then what's he see for you
When they raise the flag who do I pledge allegiance to
Life in paper bags, sometimes they fall through
Best love I ever had was this world when it was new
Back in nineteen-seventy all the way to eighty-two
Things were heavenly around the town where I grew
Family love was the sound that I knew, or ran home to
Don't it make your brown eyes blue?

(snip...)

[Lex]

7. LOL.

Well played. :thumbsup:

[Kittycat]

21. Don't make it already worse than it is... Sadly we were born on the same

day of the year - now we have the same ancestor. :puke:
I wonder if I can claim heritage, and take a portion of the family inheritance? If so, I'd give it back to the people.

[Oilwellian]

25. Wow, that's the first time I've seen color in his eyes

Usually they're black or red. :D

[Atman]

8. Does this mean I'm related to Chris Matthews...eeeeeeewwwwwwwwwww.

Oh well, there's one in every family.

.

[xchrom]

10. lol -- i love that -- wow --

[Toots]

11. Should blue eyed people be forced to sit at the back of the bus?

Since they are an obvious mutation it only seems natural they should be isolated from "normal" people.

[sarge43]

16. So long as I can sit next to this Abby Normal, I'm there.

[jimshoes]

15. In high school a classmate had one blue eye

and one brown eye. BTW, Hey to all my blue eyed relatives out there!

[RebelOne]

29. My dog has one blue eye and one brown eye.

Maybe my dog and your classmate are related.

[CottonBear]

60. My high school classmate had a blue and a brown eye also! David Bowie does too!

I have blue eyes!

Shout out to all of my blue eyes relatives! :hi:

[notadmblnd]

17. I guess my mother was truthful when she told my baby sister that

she was the milkman's. :shrug:

[donsu]

46. they used to ask my parents what color eyes and hair the milkman had

after I was born. both parents had dark hair and eyes.

nowadays milkmen don't even come to the house with their milk from grass (pasture) fed cows that aren't full of antibiotics and growth hormones. that milk tasted good, was local and fresh not this reconstituted milk curds that they call fresh.

sorry - had to rant.

[MuseRider]

18. I am surprised

that the first blue eyed person survived to procreate! Oh yea, we were probably more socially evolved than we are now.

Cool info, thanks.

[mitchum]

73. Hell, all the brown-eyed people wanted to mate with that lovely specimen...

says a blue-eyed man :)

[Buns_of_Fire]

19. But WHO are these common ancestors? I want NAMES, dammit!

[Kittycat]

22. YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!

J/K :)

[gollygee]

20. Ack! That means my husband and I are related!!

LOL

[knitter4democracy]

26. I'd always figured Hubby and I were related way, way back.

He's of Viking stock, and I'm of Irish, Scot, and German stock. Plenty of possibilities there. ;)

[gollygee]

35. Plenty of possibilities here I suppose too

I'm French, Dutch, and German, and he's English, Scottish, and Irish. There was that whole Norman conquest thing way back when. The Roman Empire, of course. And lots of other cross-channel traffic over history.

Our daughter's first knowledge of genetics: "You have blue eyes, daddy has blue eyes, and I have blue eyes too!" Yes, if mommy and daddy both have blue eyes, it's pretty likely that their daughter will have blue eyes.

[Marr]

41. I expect this common ancestor must be pretty far back.

Like... a Bronze Age Celt or something. It's certainly interesting.

[Orsino]

23. I was hoping that the story would date and geolocate the mutation.

My eyes are bluish, and I'd like to know when and where they originated.

Neat, though, that mitDNA seems to assert itself.

[sarge43]

27. Quite possibly an adaptation like paler skin to conditions

in the European subcontinent anywhere between 40,000BCE to 100,000BCE, ie last ice age. They needed all the Vitamin D they could get. Right now mitochondrial mutations can be dated with a 20K year spread - not yet an exact science.

[Orsino]

42. Or simply a mutation that isn't culled in northern climes.

In less direct sunlight, iris melatonin has less value. Maybe?

[sarge43]

45. Also quite possible

We tend to think of mutations as either good or bad. Most are neutral; they neither harm nor help and because they don't do harm to the species, they hang around. Further, hunter-gathers in marginal or extreme conditions usually don't cull healthy children; by necessity they're very pragmatic.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

78. Black Sea area, ~10,000 years ago.

from another thread.

[Orsino]

79. Neat.

I would have expected it to have begun closer to the Arctic Circle, and longer ago.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

24. Cal Ripken Jr.?

Or maybe Paul Newmann?

That would be cool.

[TexasObserver]

28. Suite Judy Blue Eyes

It's getting to the point ....

I never imagined I was kin to her.

For those who remember it, the Woodstock recording:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVEUbIgJa9Q

[truebrit71]

30. This simply proves me long-suffering wife's thesis...

...I AM in fact, a mutant...

:rofl:

[acmavm]

31. Ah! This explains green eyes as well. I have 4 blue eyed kids,

1 green eyed

Variation in eye color from brown to green can be explained by the amount of melanin in the iris, but blue-eyed individuals only have a small degree of variation in the amount of melanin in their eyes, Eiberg explained.

[sarge43]

32. Yeah, interesting combos

Dad: Paul Newman blue

Mom: True green

Brother: Greenish brown

Me: Weird hazel

Nephew and nieces (5): True brown thru Grandpa's blue.

[AngryAmish]

33. Duh, it was Yakub who invented this mutation

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakub>

"According to the Nation of Islam (NOI), Yakub (also spelled Yacub or Yakob), was an evil scientist responsible for creating the white race — a race of devils, in their view. Yakub created white people by a process of grafting the "black germ" to a "white germ" from the original black population of the world. It took 600 years for Yakub and his successors to fully whiten his creations. This was achieved under a despotic regime on the island of Patmos.<1> The reasons for Yakub's actions are unclear. According to NOI doctrine, his progeny were destined to rule for 6,000 years before the original black peoples of the world regained dominance, a process that began in 1914.

The doctrine of Yakub was first proclaimed by Wallace Fard Muhammad and was later developed by his successor Elijah Muhammad."

[mitchum]

74. That is one of my favorite crazyass stories told by a conman...

it rivals Josph Smith's nonsense. And that's saying something.

[Le Taz Hot]

34. I always knew I was a mutant.

It's now confirmed. :evilgrin:

[Muttocracy]

39. We are all mutants in many ways! n/t

[SmokingJacket]

36. Yeah, but many brown-eyed people must also share this ancestor.

Since many blue-eyed people have brown-eyed children. My grandfather had blue eyes, I have brown, but I share all his ancestors. How many brown-eyed people, especially those with some European relatives, have *no* blue-eyed people in their lineage?

We're all freaking related!!!!

[Name removed]

37. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Bluebear]

40. Your spamming of the boards is not welcome here.

[Muttocracy]

38. since when can a particular mutation only happen once?

Will have to read the full article later, but that sounds like a bit of an assumption that wouldn't have passed muster in my genetics and evolution classes. Also, color is a quantitative trait, not just a yes/no thing. Even my sister and I don't have the same color blue eyes.

[donsu]

43. and black eyes?

does brown include black?

a breed of dog has blue eyes (probably 2 breeds) wonder if the same thing happened there.

and what about yellow eyes?

just wondering.

I'm blue.

[Muttocracy]

48. and that's why I don't think it's all the same mutation

it can arise multiple times.

Siberian huskies have the wildest eye combinations - one blue one brown is common, and they can have marbled blue and brown in a single eye too.

In some breeds (and in white cats), can be associated with deafness; in others it isn't.

[Spacemom]

44. Here's a neat site

http://museum.thetech.org/ugenetics/eyeCalc/eyecalculator.html

I have blue eyes, my husband has brown. We only have a 13% chance of having a blue eyed child.

BTW, we have 2 sons, both with brown eyes. :D

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

52. Is This Not Really Stupid Due To Going Back Far Enough Us ALL Having A Common Ancestor?

I dunno. At some point can't we all be traced back to an instance of genetic mutation/adaptation?

[ThomWV]

53. Holy Shit! Who's My Daddy?

[BrotherBuzz]

56. So, was God flipping the switch when Gracie Allen was created?

Gracie Allen had the distinction of owning one blue eye and one brown eye. You'd never have known it because she refused to be filmed in color.

[Reader Rabbit]

57. Does this mean that my parents committed incest?

And that I'm a product of it? Eeeuuuuuwwww!!!!

:crazy:

[lonestarnot]

58. Very interesting.

[AspenRose]

59. Where does Elizabeth Taylor fit in all this

"Violet eyes"

[Hekate]

72. Blue comes in shades, & violet's a shade of blue. I grew up around mostly brown eyed people--

...although in my family my parents both had light green hazel eyes, and my 3 sibs had blue eyes. Mine went from hazel to brown in my childhood and back to green (darker than either of my parents) as an adult. My ex-hubby's eyes were blue and our son's eyes are deep brown while our daughter's eyes are blue.

My Grandma's eyes were the brightest, most intense blue. A year ago I met up with one of my cousins at my Mom's memorial service and I saw our Grandma's eyes in his face, and she's been gone for 37 years.

Watching genetics play out is really kind of fun.

Hekate

[CottonBear]

61. Cool! My boyfriend and I have a common ancestor!

Hello to all of my blue eyed relatives! :hi:

[TahitiNut]

63. (Hmmm...) Suspicions confirmed. It was the mailman.

:dunce:

[berni_mccoy]

64. Doesn't Bush have Blue Eyes... thank goodness I have brown! :-P

:-P

[Chovexani]

66. I thought they just ate too much Spice.

[supernova]

67. Maybe I did!

have too much spice!

:rofl:

[Chovexani]

69. Ever thought of a career in truthsaying?

:rofl:

[bikebloke]

68. Hey, we have a place to crash.

When travelling, we blue-eyed devils can stay with our blue-eyed kin. It might help us emigrate. I'm flying to New Zealand and start knocking on doors. "Oi, cuz..."

[librechik]

76. Here's her picture:

it's the only logical explanation

[Arugula Latte]

77. "No one knows what it's like to be the sad genetic mutant behind blue eyes..."

;)

[madmom]

80. my father and hubby both have green eyes, my mom and all the kids, grandkids and great grand kids

have blue.I've been told I have "wonder woman's eyes", lucky me!

[KansDem]

81. Man, that would make for one helluva family reunion! (nt)

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

83. I gotcher blue-eyed mutant right here!