Why do I have brown eyes?

Updated February 21, 2017 | Factmonster Staff

Why do I have brown eyes?

The genes we inherit from our parents determine things like height, looks, hair color, eye color and chemical makeup. This passing of characteristics from parent to child is called heredity. Our genes are made of DNA, short for deoxyribonucleic acid, which carries hereditary information. DNA is a long molecule made up of two strands that twist around each other and have an almost endless variety of chemical patterns. If your mother has brown eyes, and your father has blue eyes, there’s a good chance you have brown eyes. That’s because the brown-eye gene is dominant, and the blue-eye gene is recessive. The dominant gene usually prevails over the recessive one. If you have blue eyes and both your parents have brown eyes, take a look at your grandparents’. You probably inherited a recessive blue-eye gene from both of your parents.


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