Azure, Arkansas and Albinos

In keeping with last week’s subject matter, here is one for all my blue-eyed readers.  Being as my fiancé has red hair and blue eyes, I’m probably going to be in trouble with this one...

For those of you who have blue eyes and like to flaunt them, you may want to reconsider and maybe invest in some colored contacts.

A few years back Danish researchers concluded all blue-eyed people share a common ancestor, presumably someone who lived 6,000 to 10,000 years ago somewhere in the vicinity north of the Black Sea.  According to the study, the norm within the human race, as well as with mice, horses, cows, rats, dogs, cats and monkeys, is to have brown eyes.  A genetic mutation affecting the OCA2 gene in our chromosomes resulted in the creation of a switch which turned off the ability to produce brown eyes.  Fortunately, that switch, which sits next to the OCA2 gene and regulates the pigmentation of our eyes, hair and skin, only has a limiting effect.  If the mutation had completely deactivated the OCA2 gene, all blue-eyed people would be albinos.

“Ok”, you say…”so what.  I’m not an albino and everyone loves my blue eyes.”  Not so fast.  The way the mutation works is neither the first person to have had the mutation nor his or her children would have had the blue eyes themselves.  Because blue eyes are a recessive trait, the gene must be inherited from both parents…if you can understand what is going on here I think you know where I am going with this.  It wouldn’t have been until the original mutant’s grandchildren or great-grandchildren “hooked up” that the first blue-eyed person would have appeared.  Cousin loving mutants…You’d think half of Arkansas would have blue eyes.

“Again, my ancestors umpteen generations ago got a little out of hand…so what”, you say.  Now for the really scary part…The way this works most likely all people with blue eyes are related, unless the mutation occurred in more than one person totally independent from one another.  Following that logic, if you have blue eyes, you’re somehow related to BILL CLINTON!!!!  And he is from Arkansas.  Now it’s making sense.

The study goes on to say the genetic variation is considered “neither a positive nor a negative mutation” as the mutation also produces greater instances of blond hair and fair skin.  This confers a survival advantage by stimulating greater production of vitamin D.  While I can’t speak to the vitamin D portion of that conclusion, the blond comment…well maybe that’s best left for another episode.

Marc “Wiggy” Kovacs - Babbling Bearer of Bizarre Black Sea Biological Bridal Behavior