Featured Picture Credit score: Danielle Tunstall/Tane4kaCheResearchers studied folks with blue eyes from a spread of nations to achieve their conclusionPublished Mar 28, 2024, 15:57:31 GMTLast up to date Mar 28, 2024, 15:57:30 GMTWhether you may have blue eyes your self or simply know somebody who has them, you possibly can assure the trait comes from one individual particularly. That is as a result of each single one of many 7.8 billion folks on this planet who has blue eyes is a descendant of this identical individual.It is an icky thought when you and the individual you are in a relationship with each occur to have blue eyes, however I am afraid it is simply one thing you will have to just accept.The excellent news is, it is not anybody as shut as your mother or grandma that you need to blame for this relation.In the event you do have that relation in widespread, that is one other subject altogether.The widespread ancestor truly lived between 6,000 and 10,000 years in the past – that means we have gone by a good few generations since then.Researchers have defined that there is one thing referred to as the OCA2 gene in our eyes which determines the extent of brown pigment in them.PixabayHowever, individuals who have blue eyes have a gene referred to as HERC2, which limits the OCA2, ensuing within the growth of blue eyes.Whereas the gene would not ‘swap off’ the OCA2 fully, it reduces the manufacturing of melanin within the iris and successfully ‘dilutes’ brown eyes to blue.So, since each blue-eyed individual on the earth has the HERC2 gene, with this very same mutation being handed down by generations, scientists have concluded that all of it got here from one authentic individual.The work was completed by a staff of researchers from the College of Copenhagen, who recognized the preliminary mutation and realised that it was current in everybody with blue eyes.PixabayThe staff studied mitochondrial DNA and in contrast the attention color of blue-eyed people in a spread of nations, together with Jordan, Denmark and Turkey.Professor Hans Eiberg, from the Division of Mobile and Molecular Drugs, defined: “Initially, all of us had brown eyes. However a genetic mutation affecting the OCA2 gene in our chromosomes resulted within the creation of a ‘swap’, which accurately ‘turned off’ the power to supply brown eyes.””They’ve all inherited the identical swap at precisely the identical spot of their DNA,” he added.Sharing his ideas on whether or not the change is a constructive or destructive mutation, Eiberg assured that it truly is not both.He stated: “It merely exhibits that nature is continually shuffling the human genome, making a genetic cocktail of human chromosomes and making an attempt out completely different modifications because it does so.”Subjects:Â Science, Life