• Question: why do people have different coloured eyes

    Asked by GlynesKhyle to Uday, Chloe on 13 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Chloe Huseyin

      Chloe Huseyin answered on 13 Nov 2015:

      Eye colour is determined by your genes, genes are sequences of DNA that instruct you cells how to make different proteins. These proteins are what cause us to look like us. Genes are inherited from our parents so eye colour is related to what genes you you got from your parents and they got from their parents (your grandparents).

      Why eyes actually appear to be different colours is related to how much of a pigment called melanin is produced. Blue eyes have little or no melanin and brown eyes have a lot, melanin isn’t usually produced when we are first born so babies are usually born with blue eyes and they can darken as they get older to become brown (or just stay blue too).

    • Photo: Uday Bangavadi

      Uday Bangavadi answered on 16 Nov 2015:

      Eye color is the result of variations in the amount of melanin, a pigment found in the front part of the iris of the eye. The lack of this pigment results in blue eyes, some pigment gives green and lots of pigment gives brown eyes.

      So light brown eyes just have a bit less melanin than darker brown eyes. All of the different shades of eye color happen the same way. Blue-green eyes have an amount of melanin between green and blue, hazel eyes have an amount of pigment between green and brown, etc

Comments