Eye Colour inheritance in humans
Eye Colour inheritance in humans

Summary/Abstract: Around 8000 years ago, in Europe appeared the first people with blue eyes. For a long time, scientists thought that the gene, responsible for the eye colour, had a dominant allele for brown eyes and recessive one for light eyes. With the development of molecular biology and genetics, however, it was discovered that the eye colour inheritance pattern is not that simple. Nowadays, scientists know that eye colour is a polygenic trait – many genes are responsible for it, which explains the enormous eye colour variation in humans. This project examines eye colour inheritance in people. It focuses on the most important genes, responsible for eye colour – HERC2 and OCA2. The mentioned genes and their manifestation were investigated within a family by construction of a genealogical pedigree and using molecular-biological methods. The results from the experiment led to confirmation of the theoretical knowledge. The aim of this study is to present the basic principles that underlie eye colourgenetics and to explore the essential methods used by scientists daily to research complex biological topics as eye colour heredity.

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