Blue is not exactly the most common color in nature – so much so that most of the time it is the result of an optical illusion – and yet our species is capable of producing very deep blue eyes, capable of recalling the color of sea waves. Science, however, has managed to decipher the secret that lies behind their gaze, ruining part of their romanticism.
In a recent article published on the site All About Visionthe optometrist optician Gary Heiting he reiterated once and for all that blue eyes don’t exist and that this color appeared within our species thanks to a particular recessive mutation, which affects the melanin.
This substance is responsible not only for the color of our eyes and hair, but also for the tan of our skin during the summer. It has a dark tone, which causes the majority of humans to be dark-haired and dark-skinned.
“Brown melanin is the only pigment in the human eye. There is no other pigment for hazel, green or blue.” Heiting wrote about the article. “The eyes appear to have these colors only because of the way light hits the layers of the iris and reflects back to the observer. What makes the eyes change color is therefore the concentration of melanin in the iris and its molecular structure”.
Those who have a genetic mutation for melanin often experience a mutation in gene OCA2which is among the oldest in our genome. When this mutation is present, the melanin in the iris reflects light slightly differently, causing the eyes to take on a blue hue.
However, when the iris only partially presents the mutation, depending on the concentration of mutated cells and normal cells, the eyes they will be hazelnut or greenalways due to the absorption and reflection of light.
Unlike many other mutations in the human body, the one that affects eye color appears to be neutral, meaning it does not lead to serious physical consequences. Both light and dark eyes are equally likely to develop myopia, for example.
The only precaution that can be taken is that those who have light eyes they suffer more from the light, so they will hardly feel at ease at the equator, where the sunlight hits the Earth’s surface following a more frequent line of incidence.
This led natural selection to cause populations with lighter eyes thrived best near the poleswhere light was scarce during certain times of the year.
The research also managed to discover that all people who have blue eyes today have a single common ancestorprobably born in the Near East 40 or 50,000 years ago. While alive, this person was the only human on Earth with blue hair, and although this characteristic risked making him an outcast from society, not only did he manage to reproduce, but it seems that he and his descendants did so several times, to the point of creating a dynasty capable of spreading everywhere on the planet.
Having light eyes is not the most peculiar condition that can strike our gaze, as demonstrated by people who seem to have sparkling eyes. However, it is indicative that all people with light eyes are more genetically related, compared to other people.
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