That's the concluding statement in a Live Science story of how genetic researchers have determined that all bliue-eyed people in the world share a single ancestor who lived between 6,000-10,000 years ago.
"Originally, we all had brown eyes," said Hans Eiberg from the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Copenhagen.I have blue eyes. My wife has blue eyes. All (NB: not "both") of our kids have blue eyes. We're taking over.
The mutation affected the so-called OCA2 gene, which is involved in the production of melanin, the pigment that gives color to our hair, eyes and skin.
"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," Eiberg said. ...
"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." Eiberg and his colleagues detailed their study in the Jan. 3 online edition of the journal Human Genetics.
That genetic switch somehow spread throughout Europe and now other parts of the world.
"The question really is, 'Why did we go from having nobody on Earth with blue eyes 10,000 years ago to having 20 or 40 percent of Europeans having blue eyes now?" Hawks said. "This gene does something good for people. It makes them have more kids."
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4 comments:
Jeepers, creepers. :-)
Mutants!
well, my dad had blue eyes; my mother one green, one brown. all sevenchildren had blue eyes. we all married brown-eyed people. all our children have brown eyes. we're back where we started.
Why? The answer is obvious. Sexual selection. People with blue eyes are better looking than mud-eyed people like me. Blue-eyed men knocked up more ladies. True then, true now. Not that I'm bitter or anything.
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