About Nicholas Morphew Expertise I can answer simple genetics questions regarding probabilities of inheriting particular
diseases and anything that is a little trivial I can search the answers for. Please do not ask me
sensitive questions that you may not like an answer to - please consult your personal
geneticist or general practitioner.
Experience No practical experience
Education/Credentials Bachelor of Biomedical Science (University of Newcastle)
Expert: Nicholas Morphew Date: 12/21/2007 Subject: color eyes for my baby
Question my baby is a week old and of course i still don't know what color are her eyes , they look very light but with babies you never know. I have brown eyes , my mother has hazel eyes , my father light brown , my mothers grandma had blue eyes all of her sisters (my aunts) have brown hazel eyes. i have 4 cousins with light blue and green eyes and 6 with brown eyes.
my husband has hazel green eyes , i don't know his parents and the only pictures i've seen are the b/w ones , his sister has brown eyes and he already has a son with hazel green eyes and a daughter with brown eyes.
Answer Hi Andrea!
Eye colour along with many human traits are defined by two or more combinations of genes. Because we do not not the exact genotype of your parents and your partners parents, along with you and your husband it is very difficult to predict the exact chances of your child having a particular eye colour. What I can tell you is that brown eyes are dominant and blue eyes are recessive. This means if you only have one gene for brown eyes it will be expressed, whereas you need both genes for blue eyes to express that blue eyed trait. You said you have brown eyes and your husband has hazel green eyes. Chances are you husband may have blue eyed allele (form of gene) that has given him a green tinge. Having brown eyes (yourself) is no indication as to whether or not you are carrying genes for anything else other than brown eyes (however you could well be carrying a blue eyed gene).
Bottom line - for your child to have blue eyes, she needs to get a blue allele from both you and your partner. If you do not have a blue eyed allele she will not have blue eyes. If however she obtains a brown allele that doesn't possess a great deal of dominance and a blue allele she may come out with an eye colour somewhere between blue and brown - hazel/ dark green etc.
Even if both of you possess at least one blue eyed gene, there is still only a 25 % chance that she will have blue eyes. Other colours are far more common for you to pass onto your child and brown eyes would be even more common due to their dominant nature.
I hope that has given you a brief insight as to how genes are transferred onto your children and the nature of genes.
It should also be noted that there are other factors that influence eye colour including diet, sunlight exposure and of course age!
