Both you and your significant other have blue eyes?...then you're committing incest

hotballa · Jan 31, 2008

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,327070,00.html

Scientist: All Blue-Eyed People Are Related

If you've got blue eyes, shake the hand of the nearest person who shares your azure irises: He or she may be a distant cousin.

Danish researchers have concluded that all blue-eyed people share a common ancestor, presumably someone who lived 6,000 to 10,000 years ago.

"Originally, we all had brown eyes," Professor Hans Eiberg of the University of Copenhagen said in a press release. "But a genetic mutation affecting the OCA2 gene in our chromosomes resulted in the creation of a 'switch,' which literally 'turned off' the ability to produce brown eyes."

That "switch" — a simple change from "A," or adenine, to "G," or guanine, in the DNA — actually sits next to the OCA2 gene, which regulates the pigmentation of our eyes, hair and skin, and hence has only a limiting effect on it.

If the mutation had completely deactivated OCA2, all blue-eyed people would be albinos.

Eiberg and his team analyzed 155 individuals in a large Danish family, plus several blue-eyed people born in Turkey and Jordan.

All blue-eyed subjects had the mutation, and there was very little variation on the genes neighboring it on the chromosome, indicating that the mutation first arose relatively recently.

In contrast, most mammals share the "normal" form of the gene. The six-letter sequence is exactly the same among mice, horses, cows, rats, dogs, cats, monkeys, chimpanzees and humans with brown eyes. (No word on what gives Siberian huskies and Siamese cats blue eyes.)

Eiberg figures the mutation took place on the northern of the Black Sea, but that's an educated guess, assuming the first blue-eyed humans were among the proto-Indo-Europeans who subsequently spread agriculture into western Europe and later rode horses into Iran and India.

Ironically, neither the first person to have the mutation, nor his or her children, would have had blue eyes themselves.

Blue eyes are a recessive trait, and the gene must be inherited from both parents. (Green eyes involve a related but different gene, one that is recessive to brown but dominant to blue.)

It wasn't until the original mutant's grandchildren or great-grandchildren hooked up — cousin marriage is the norm through most of human history — that the first blue-eyed person appeared. He or she must have looked pretty odd for the Neolithic era.

Eiberg stresses that the genetic variation, as the press release puts it, is "neither a positive nor a negative mutation."

That's a bit disingenuous, as the mutation also produces greater instance of blond hair (sexually selected for even today) and fair skin, which confers a survival advantage by stimulating greater production of vitamin D in sun-starved northern European countries — exactly where blue eyes are still most prevalent.
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Mr. Clutch · Jan 31, 2008

Well if that's ok then I should be allowed to sleep with my cousin.

MadMax · Jan 31, 2008

Mr. Clutch said:

Well if that's ok then I should be allowed to sleep with my cousin.
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weslinder · Jan 31, 2008

Both you and your significant other are humans?...then you're committing incest

Royals Ego · Jan 31, 2008

whats wrong with incest?

meggoleggo · Jan 31, 2008

GUILTY, I suppose...

Incest is the best, put your (cousin) to the test!

Beck · Jan 31, 2008

weslinder said:

Both you and your significant other are humans?...then you're committing incest
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what? people share common ancestors thousands of years ago? next, I'll find out the earth is round...

meggoleggo · Jan 31, 2008

Beck said:

what? people share common ancestors thousands of years ago? next, I'll find out the earth is round...
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Slow down, speed racer! First you have to find out that the earth isn't the center of the universe. THEN you can step up to the physical shape of the earth.

SwoLy-D · Jan 31, 2008

meggoleggo said:

Slow down, speed racer! First you have to find out that the earth isn't the center of the universe. THEN you can step up to the physical shape of the earth.
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what? The universe has a center?

meggo, if you're NOT married and are guilty of the cousin thing, then it's a DOUBLE-WHAMMY.

Manny Ramirez · Jan 31, 2008

Me having blue eyes is one of the many things that I am glad that God gave me. My wife having blue eyes is one of the many things that I am glad that God gave her.

Lady_Di · Jan 31, 2008

We're all related.

gbritton · Jan 31, 2008

We're all related.
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That's hot

Franchise3 · Jan 31, 2008

Imagine how freaky it must've been to be the first person in the history of the world with blue eyes. I'm surprised they didn't think he/she was a god or witch or some such.

Ziggy · Jan 31, 2008

Well I never committed any incest but I have been jamming many of you guys family members on a regular basis. My bad.

Xenochimera · Jan 31, 2008

is it possible for someone with brown or black eyes to marry someone with blue green or gray eyes and the children still have either blue green or gray eye color?

Cannonball · Jan 31, 2008

Xenochimera said:

is it possible for someone with brown or black eyes to marry someone with blue green or gray eyes and the children still have either blue green or gray eye color?
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Yes. I have blue eyes. My mother has brown eyes.

Yonkers · Jan 31, 2008

Incest. A game the whole family can play.

Behad · Jan 31, 2008

Xenochimera said:

is it possible for someone with brown or black eyes to marry someone with blue green or gray eyes and the children still have either blue green or gray eye color?
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I have brown eyes. My wife's are hazel-ish. Two kids have brown eyes, and a third with the most steel blue eyes you have ever seen.

Isabel · Jan 31, 2008

Good thing I split up with my ex, LOL... we both had blue eyes, and my original last name did appear way back in his family tree...

My boyfriend now has hazel eyes, as does most of his family. Wonder how that works in terms of what our kids might get.

IROC it · Jan 31, 2008

My eyes are blue...

But my wife's eyes are the rarest of jade green...

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Both you and your significant other have blue eyes?...then you're committing incest

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