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HandWiki. Human Eye Color. Encyclopedia. Available online: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/37922 (accessed on 28 September 2026).
HandWiki. Human Eye Color. Encyclopedia. Available at: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/37922. Accessed September 28, 2026.
HandWiki. "Human Eye Color" Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/37922 (accessed September 28, 2026).
HandWiki. (2022, December 05). Human Eye Color. In Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/37922
HandWiki. "Human Eye Color." Encyclopedia. Web. 05 December, 2022.
Human Eye Color
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The content is sourced from: https://handwiki.org/wiki/Biology:Human_eye_color

Eye color is a polygenic phenotypic character and is determined by the amount and type of pigments in the eye's iris. Humans and other animals have many phenotypic variations in eye color, as blue, brown, gray, green and others. These variations constitute phenotypic traits. The genetics of eye color are complicated, and color is determined by multiple genes. Some of the eye-color genes include EYCL1 (a green/blue eye-color gene located on chromosome 19), EYCL2 (a brown eye-color gene) and EYCL3 (a brown/blue eye-color gene located on chromosome 15). The once-held view that blue eye color is a simple recessive trait has been shown to be wrong. The genetics of eye color are so complex that almost any parent-child combination of eye colors can occur. In human eyes, these variations in color are attributed to varying ratios of eumelanin produced by melanocytes in the iris. The brightly colored eyes of many bird species are largely determined by other pigments, such as pteridines, purines, and carotenoids. Three main elements within the iris contribute to its color: the melanin content of the iris pigment epithelium, the melanin content within the iris stroma, and the cellular density of the iris stroma. In eyes of all colors, the iris pigment epithelium contains the black pigment, eumelanin. Color variations among different irides are typically attributed to the melanin content within the iris stroma. The density of cells within the stroma affects how much light is absorbed by the underlying pigment epithelium. OCA2 gene polymorphism, close to proximal 5′ regulatory region, explains most human eye-color variation.

epithelium polymorphism melanocytes

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