All About The Human Eye Color Chart

All About The Human Eye Color Chart

Have you wondered about different colored eyes, and how do people inherit them? As you might have noticed, there are different people with different eye color. These eye colors can vary from gray, hazel, blue, green, and brown.

But do you know that the eye color is actually the iris color? There is a pigment known as melanin present in your iris which produces your eye color. For example, blue eyes are produced due to lack of melanin while brown eyes are produced by higher concentrations of melanin. The resultant eye color can be of any shade which is further determined by genetics.

Above is a brief illustration of human eye color chart.

Commonly, two-parents with green can end up with green-eyed baby, but not always. Similarly, two-hazel-eyed parents are likely to have a child with hazel eyes, but not all the time. If one parent has hazel eyes, and the other parent has green eyes, the child has a chance of inheriting either green or hazel eyes.

Which genes can a newborn baby inherit?

Eye color is a physical characteristic determined through genes of both parents. As a result, the baby inherits 50% of eye color genetics material from each parent. The genes transfer to alternative forms known as alleles. Each of this allele differs from the other. There are three pairs of alleles that play for development of eye color like brown, green, and blue.

As mentioned above, the newborn’s eye color depends on both the parent’s eye color and whether the alleles become prevalent. In other cases, the baby might also develop two dominant alleles from both parents, with one or two dominant alleles. Here is a baby eye color chart to better explain this case:

• The newborn will inherit brown eyes if it receives a dominant blue allele from one parent and a dominant brown allele from the other parent.

• A newborn will inherit blue eyes if it inherits blue alleles from both parents. The baby is likely to receive blue eyes because blue is recessive and non-dominant.

• A baby will inherit green eyes if it receives green alleles from both parents or receives one green allele from one parent and blue allele from the other.

• Babies born with blue eyes take time for producing the pigment melanin. Therefore, the baby’s eye color will be determined only after she turns three.

1. Homozygous and Heterozygous

Human beings have two gene copies. One is inherited from the other, and the other is inherited from father. Homozygous can mean that two copies match or are dominant and heterozygous can means that two gene copies can differ or be recessive.

2. Dominant Eye Color

Brown and green are two of the most common eye colors. There are 75-95% chances of newborn inheriting brown or green eyes when both parents have same colored eyes.

3. Recessive Eye Color

Blue is classified as a recessive and dominant eye color. Therefore a newborn baby is more likely to inherit blue eyes if both parents have brown eyes.

4. Genotype

Genotype is a gene combination of both parents. In this case, both parents’ genotype can determine the eye color of the newborn.

5. Phenotype

Phenotype refers to the physical appearance of the eye color of both parents.