There's no guarantee when it comes to your offspring's eye color. While a baby inherits half of their eye color genetics from one parent and half from the other parent, the way that the genes interact also plays a role in determining eye color.
A couple's children can have almost any eye color, even if it does not match those of either parent. Currently it is thought that eye color is determined by about six genes, so you can imagine how inheritance of eye color becomes very complicated.
For example, DNA can and does change between generations. So if a change happened that turned a blue eye color gene into a brown one, then blue-eyed parents could have a brown-eyed child. As you might guess, this sort of thing is pretty rare.
Although nearly 75 percent of eye color is controlled by the OCA2 gene, other genes provide a pathway for melanin. These genes can raise or lower melanin levels, causing a child to have more or less melanin than either parent.
Your children inherit their eye colors from you and your partner. It's a combination of mom and dad's eye colors – generally, the color is determined by this mix and whether the genes are dominant or recessive. Every child carries two copies of every gene – one comes from mom, and the other comes from dad.
The inheritance of eye color is more complex than originally suspected because multiple genes are involved. While a child's eye color can often be predicted by the eye colors of his or her parents and other relatives, genetic variations sometimes produce unexpected results.
All men inherit a Y chromosome from their father, which means all traits that are only found on the Y chromosome come from dad, not mom. The Supporting Evidence: Y-linked traits follow a clear paternal lineage.
Two brown-eyed parents are likely to have a brown-eyed child, but could potentially have a child with blue, green or hazel eyes, depending on the combination of genes from each parent.
You inherit one from the mother and one from the father. If the two alleles of a specific gene are different (heterozygous), the trait that is dominant is expressed (shown). The trait that is hidden is called recessive. Brown eye color is a dominant trait and blue eye color is a recessive trait.
Since melanocytes respond to light, at birth a baby may have eyes that appear gray or blue mostly due to the lack of pigment and because he's been in a dark womb up until now. As he's exposed to more light, over time (even several years) his eye color can change.
Originally Answered: Can a baby get a different eye colour which is not present in any of the parents? Yes, this is very much possible. There are multiple genes which determine eye colour but the genes expressing blue or green eye colour are recessive and genes expressing brown eye colour is dominant.
Unlike nuclear DNA, which comes from both parents, mitochondrial DNA comes only from the mother.
The only way to present blue eyes is to inherit two copies of the blue-eyed gene. However, brown-eyed parents can pass a recessive blue-eyed gene. Therefore, two brown-eyed partners can birth a blue-eyed baby.
Eye color inheritance pattern
A child's eye color depends on the pairing of genes passed on from each parent, which is thought to involve at least three gene pairs. The two main gene pairs geneticists have focused on are EYCL1 (also called the gey gene) and EYCL3 (also called the bey2 gene).
Some seemingly impossible genetics can and do happen sometimes. This means that your kids might get your grandparent's darker eyes or hair even if you have kids with someone with blonde hair and blue eyes. It just would be much less likely than blonde haired, blue eyed kids.
Likewise, two brown-eyed parents can have a child with blue eyes, although this is also uncommon.
Eye colour, or more correctly iris colour, is often used as an example for teaching Mendelian genetics, with brown being dominant and blue being recessive.
Genes from your parents, grandparents and other relatives determine what color your irises will be. These genes also play a role in the color of your hair and skin.
Unequal eye colors
This is normal and is caused by tissue variations in different parts of the iris. But some people can have a pigment "freckle" (called a nevus) on one part of their iris.
A baby's eye color will depend on the combination of alleles they inherit from each parent. If one parent has dark eyes and their partner's are light, the baby is likely to end up with dark eyes as well. That's because the brown allele is dominant, so if a baby gets one, they'll develop brown eyes.
The answer has to do with the fact that each parent actually has two different sets of genes. And that each parent passes only half of their genes to their child. And that the half that gets passed down is random. All of this together ensures that each child ends up with a different, unique set of genes.
And while it is true that you get half of your genes from each parent, the genes from your father are more dominant, especially when it comes to your health.
Genetically, you actually carry more of your mother's genes than your father's. That's because of little organelles that live within your cells, the mitochondria, which you only receive from your mother.
Babies inherit multiple pairs of genes from each parent that play a role in appearance. These genes determine hair color as well as eye color and complexion. And although scientists have yet to determine how many genes ultimately determine the exact color of a child's hair, they do understand how the process works.