People with eyes this color have one puzzling thing in common.

People with this color of eyes have more than just iris pigmentation in common.

Eye color is determined by the genes of the parents. Brown is the color that stands out most frequently while 8 to 10% of people have blue eyes. This color is associated with a recessive gene, which means that one must inherit the rarest combination of genes from the parents for the color becomes really apparent. According to a study that analyzed Based on the genetic data of around 800 blue-eyed people from around the world, they don't just have eye color in common. nbsp;

The researchers,  scientists from the Universityé from Copenhagen, are interested in the OCA2 gene, which determines the level of brown pigment in the eye. They then discovered that the genetic mutation that causes the blue color comes from a different gene, HERC2, which affects ;the presence of OCA2 limits its ability to produce brown eyes.< /p>

The authors of the study then highlighted that 99.5% of the participants had undergone the same genetic mutation at the level of the ;DNA, which has touchedé the production and expression of melanin, the molecule which gives the color of the iris. "They all inherited" of the same switch at exactly the same place in their DNA,” detailed Professor Hans Eiberg from the Department of Molecular Medicine at the University of Brussels from Copenhagen.

For researchers, this common mutation would then come from a single individual: "We can conclude that all individuals with blue eyes are linked & ;agrave; the same ancestor, explained the main author of the study. with a spontaneous mutation which would then have spread. 

This égenetic éfoundational" &agrav; The origin of this physical trait could have occurred between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago. To this day, the first clearly identified person with blue eyes refers to a 7000 year old skeleton. "À “Originally, we all had brown eyes,” she said. the specialist. In addition, the variations in blue shades would be less significant than those for brown eyes and this could indicate that the blue color appeared more recently. The reason for the original mutation, however, remains a mystery.