Are green eyes more recessive than blue?

Question

I've heard that blue eyes are the most recessive eye color, but I was wondering if it was really green. Green is a lighter color, since yellow + blue make green. Does anyone know?

The really weird thing about it is that my mom has blue eyes, but my aunt (her sister) has green eyes. They have the same parents too.

Answer 1

Missie is right in saying that there is no 'most or least recessive' A gene is either dominant or recessive. Of course there are some cases where there are codominant genes, but we won't talk about those. The thing about eye color is that it's much more complicated than blue = recessive, brown = dominant and everything else is in between. There isn't a single set of genes determining eye color. It is true that you can generally say that blue is recessive to brown, but gray, hazel, and green make things more complicated. This is where the other sets of genes come in. There are actually 3 sets of genes. When these are in different combinations, this is where we get the other colors. Bottom line, green is not more recessive than blue.

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I don't believe that I did miss the point of the question. The asker was asking if green is recessive to blue because it's a lighter color. It's not, it doesn't matter that it's a lighter color. If the asker wanted to know which is more uncommon, that should've been the question, but it wasn't. It's not strange to have an aunt with blue eyes and a mother with blue eyes.

Answer 2

Missie and Laura are both correct, with very well thought out, concise answers. But I think they missed the point of the question. You may have mixed up the terms recessive and uncommon.

If you are looking for which eye colour is the least common it would be a toss-up between lavendar and amber. I was lucky enough to know a girl with amber eyes in university. Very freaky.

As far as north american statisitics, it would appear that green is a rarer eye colour then blue.

Answer 3

There's not actually a such thing as "most recessive" or "least recessive" Its either a dominant or a reccesive gene, period.

Brown eyes are dominant so anyone who inheriets the brown eyed gene from their parents will have brown eyes regardless of what color the second gene represents (each person inherits 2 genes per trait, one from mom and one from dad).

Blue, hazel and green eyes are all recessive traits, meaning both parents must carry a gene for these colors. It may be that it is less common to have green eyes, therefore less common to carry a gene for green. But that does not make them "more recessive"

It is also possible for a blue eyes person to carry a gene for green eyes and pass that gene on to their children, which is obviously the case with your sister. Your mom was a CARRIER of green eyes because the green eyed gene ran in her family but got passed to her sister whereas she got blue but then passed the green eyes onto your sister. You may also end up with green eyed kids in your future, even if you have brown or blue yourself.
I have green eyes and my mom has hazel and my dad blue.

I also agree with laura that we did not miss the point, and thanks for explaining in more detail how the other reccesive traits are determined.

Answer 4

I have been wondering about green eyes too. How do people get green eyes? Is there a gene for them cuz when you study (beginners) genetics they only talk about blue and brown eyes but what about the variety in between??

Can someone help us out?

Thanks Missy, my kids all have brown eyes but they all carry the recessive gene from me so maybe I'll have blue-eyed grand-kids in the future:)

Answer 5

Blue eyes are the most recessive while medium or dark brown eyes are the most dominant. Green, grey, hazel, and light brown are in the middle. So the only way to get blue eyes is if you inherit two blue eye genes but if you have one dark brown eye gene, you will have dark brown eyes...I read it in a science textbook somwhere.

Answer 6

I have always heard that blue eyes were the most recessive, basically lacking pigment. Brown is dominant over green and blue, and green is dominant over blue.

Answer 7

Not sure. I have green eyes, but so did my mom and her mom. Our father had brown eyes, and half the kids are green and half brown eyed.

Answer 8

1/4 of all of your children will be blue-eyed!