See other Science/Tech Articles
Title: All Blue Eyed People Related to Brad Pitt
Source:
http://www.spiegel.de/
URL Source: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,532346,00.html
Published: Jan 31, 2008
Author: Andrew Curry in Berlin
Post Date: 2008-02-03 21:55:51 by robin
Keywords: None
Views: 1649
Comments: 55
By Andrew Curry in Berlin According to a new paper by a Danish researcher, blue eyes come as the result of a single mutation that occurred 10,000 years ago. Which means that all people with blue peepers have a common ancestor. What do Frank Sinatra, Cameron Diaz, Brad Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow have in common? According to a new study, they all share the same ancestor. The paper, published Thursday by Danish geneticist Hans Eiberg in the journal Human Genetics, links all baby blues to a single mutation that occurred 10,000 years ago. Click on a picture to launch the image gallery (5 Photos) Eiberg says the mutation shuts off the production of the pigment responsible for brown eye color, resulting in a pure blue iris. Because the mutation is so specific, it can only be explained one way: "There must be a common ancestor for people with blue eye color," Eiberg told SPIEGEL ONLINE. Eiberg started his search for the elusive mutation close to home. Using the Copenhagen Family Bank, a massive genetic database with detailed information on over 6,000 Danes, Eiberg found a family with three generations of blue-eyes. Looking at DNA from their blood, Eiberg homed in on a single, tiny blip in the genetic code. "All of the family had the same mutation," he said. Originally, Eiberg says, everyone in the world had brown eyes. But the mutation acts as a switch that shuts off the OCA2 gene, which controls the eye's production of melanin. Melanin is the pigment that gives color to eyes and hair. The mutation limits the OCA2 gene, restricting production of melanin in the eye. The result: The eye's brown color is diluted, giving people with the mutation pure blue eyes. (Shutting melanin production down entirely would result in albinism, affecting hair and skin color as well.) People without the off-switch, on the other hand, have eye color ranging from deep brown to blue flecked with brown. (Green-eyed people can thank an entirely different part of the genome for their pretty peepers.) To make sure the Danish family wasn't a fluke, Eiberg tested hundreds more samples, including people from Turkey with dark hair, light skin and blue eyes and Jordanians with dark hair, dark skin and blue eyes. They all had the same mutation as the Danes. "I have analyzed 800 samples," Eiberg says. "Out of the 800, 799 eyes are the same." Eiberg has long been fascinated by the genetics of eye color. In 1996, he discovered the OCA2 gene, which helps control eye color. The blue-eye mutation works directly to turn off the OCA2 gene's production of melanin in the eye. Eye color is a good example of how research is complicating our understanding of heredity. "Eye color is a textbook example of how genes work in a simple way, and now it turns out it's a bit more complicated than that," said Zoltan Bochdanovits, a statistical geneticist at the Vrije University in Amsterdam. "They do present quite convincing evidence it's a single mutation causing this." Where and when the mutation occurred is more speculative, but based on the number of people with pure blue eyes in the world today, Eiberg argues that the original Ol' Blue Eyes lived between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago. Existing research on prehistoric population movements suggest that the original blue-eyed babe may have lived around the Black Sea, near modern-day Ukraine or Turkey, and that their descendants migrated to Northern Europe during the Stone Age. Like freckles, hair color or baldness, there's no real physical advantage to being blue-eyed. Says Eiberg: "It simply shows that nature is constantly shuffling the human genome, creating a genetic cocktail of human chromosomes and trying out different changes as it does so." That doesn't mean eye color isn't important. After all, that long-distant ancestor managed to get quite a few copies of his or her mutation passed along. "I can very much imagine mate choice depends on eye color in humans," said Vrije University's Bochdanovits. "Personally, I tend to believe if you're blond and blue-eyed you have an advantage, at least in some populations." NEW GENETICS DISCOVERY
All Blue Eyed People Related to Brad Pitt
PHOTO GALLERY: BABY'S GOT BLUE EYES
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 4.
#2. To: robin (#0)
Anybody else wonder why the 'l' oddball out of the 800 samples? Why no comments about this exception in the article..........with that quantity of samples, is the one loner suggestive of a flawed interpretation of the findings? It sure doesn't look like a l in a million certainty to me.
wiki is good for science, here's a more in depth explanation: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_color And here: http://sandwalk.blogspot.com/2007/02/genetics-of-eye-color.html
#5. To: robin (#4)
(Edited)
I didn't find anything that answered my question, which was brought up because of this: The mutation is extremely specific: All people with blue eyes have the exact same genetic variation, and anyone with brown or green eyes do not. As a result, Eiberg said, it must have been passed down from a single person. "It's not a guess," Eiberg says. "It has to be." To make sure the Danish family wasn't a fluke, Eiberg tested hundreds more samples, including people from Turkey with dark hair, light skin and blue eyes and Jordanians with dark hair, dark skin and blue eyes. They all had the same mutation as the Danes. "I have analyzed 800 samples," Eiberg says. "Out of the 800, 799 eyes are the same." Mr. Eiberg is the one saying it is the EXACT same genetic variation; that it HAS TO BE; and that of 800 samples, there was l that IS NOT THE SAME. I want his explanation for the one exception. One in 800 isn't a lot, but when you're talking millions of people, or billions, the exception can be rather significant I think. His idea of 'every one' and mine is obviously different, as is my definition of 'exact' different than his. I believe in studies like this, just as in other medical studies, and in polling, the higher the number of samples the greater degree of accuracy. I'm not questioning whether he was accurate in his sampling, I want to know why he makes statements like those noted, and then has an EXCEPTION that isn't explained. :)
From the article: "...."They do present quite convincing evidence it's a single mutation causing this." Where and when the mutation occurred is more speculative, but based on the number of people with pure blue eyes in the world today, Eiberg argues that the original Ol' Blue Eyes lived between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago. Existing research on prehistoric population movements suggest that the original blue-eyed babe may have lived around the Black Sea, near modern-day Ukraine or Turkey, and that their descendants migrated to Northern Europe during the Stone Age. ...." From the wiki article: "...Blue eyes contain low amounts of melanin within the iris stroma; longer wavelengths of light tend to be absorbed by the underlying iris pigment epithelium and shorter wavelengths are reflected and undergo Rayleigh scattering.[5] The type of melanin present is eumelanin.[20] The inheritance pattern followed by blue eyes is considered similar to that of a recessive trait.[7] Eiberg and colleagues showed in a study published in Human Genetics that a mutation in the second intron of the HERC2 gene, which is hypothesized to interact with the OCA2 gene promoter, reduced expression of OCA2 with subsequent reduction in melanin production.[42] The authors concluded that the mutation arose in a single individual around the Black Sea region 6-10,000 years ago.[42] Blue eyes are relatively common throughout Europe and occur randomly in other areas such as Iran and India. In India, it is not unheard of for parents with brown eyes on both sides to occasionally have blue-eyed children. Blue eyes are mostly common throughout northern and Eastern Europe, especially in Finland, Sweden, Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Russia and Poland (blue or green eyes are charactered for slavonic ethnic groups). One survey estimated that nearly 90% of Icelanders have blue or green eyes,[43] while another reported 50-80%, in contrast to 20%-49% of Spaniards and Italians of the north.[44] A 2002 study found the prevalence of blue eye color among whites in the United States to be 33.8% for those born between 1936 and 1951 compared to 57.4% for those born between 1899 and 1905.[7] Now compare what was recently revealed about the gene for white skin: European Skin Turned Pale Only Recently, Gene Suggests Ann Gibbons PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA--At the American Association of Physical Anthropologists meeting, held here from 28 to 31 March, a new report on the evolution of a gene for skin color suggested that Europeans acquired pale skin quite recently, perhaps only 6000 to 12,000 years ago. http://foil.freedom4um.com/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=51123 ============================== I don't really have time to discuss this, and don't really have anything else to add than the following thought I had when the white gene first came up....and I don't mean to start a war here....God does work in mysterious ways being my comment.....but suppose white skin and blue eyes were the mark of Cain....making him and his descendants attractive in a new way, so that those coming upon them wouldn't kill them? And in God's infinite grace and wisdom, He redeemed them through faith in Christ, and made them the driving force behind Christianity? [both good and bad perhaps.] Gen 4:8 And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him. Gen 4:9 ¶ And the LORD said unto Cain, Where [is] Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: [Am] I my brother's keeper? Gen 4:10 And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. Gen 4:11 And now [art] thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand; Gen 4:12 When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. Gen 4:13 And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment [is] greater than I can bear. Gen 4:14 Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, [that] every one that findeth me shall slay me. Gen 4:15 And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. Gen 4:16 ¶ And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. Gen 4:17 And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch....... http://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/Gen/Gen004.html#15 Matthew Henry Commentary on Genesis 4 http://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/mhc/Gen/Gen004.html ======================================== "THESIS 10: THE PURPOSE OF CAIN'S "SUSPENDED SENTENCE" Cain rebelled against Godly Patriarchy.[40] Cain's murder of his brother was worthy of death,[41] but the Lord by Divine mandate had Cain's life spared.[42] Cain was thus free to establish the "State"[43] (#11), which eventually executed Christ[44] -- the only way His Blood could have been shed for our sins. For further reading: Why Cain Was Not Executed for Murder..." [link is broken] http://vftonline.org/VF95Theses/10.htm "THESIS 11: CAIN'S CITY: THE AUTONOMY OF THE STATE Cain's polis was an attempt to escape the Presence of God,[45] and was an "autonomously creative" act of rebellion.[46] Apostate man has ever since been characterized by the City/State[47] (polis - a deified, fortified political system) ....." http://vftonline.org/VF95Theses/11.htm Vine & Fig Tree 95 THESES AGAINST THE “NEW WORLD ORDER” "A World Without "The State" .... * Patriarchy Before The Flood http://vftonline.org/VFTfiles/Directory/5a_state.htm 1Cr 4:5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God. Isa 49:6 And he said,It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles [NATIONS http:// cf.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm? Strongs=H01471&Version=kjv ], that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth. http://www.blueletterbible.org/tsk_b/Isa/49/6.html http://www.blueletterbible.org/tsk_b/1Cr/4/5.html Psa 2:8 Ask of me, and I shall give [thee] the heathen [for] thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth [for] thy possession.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#4. To: rowdee, kiki, MUDDOG (#2)
(Edited)
Replies to Comment # 4.
#19. To: robin (#4)
(Edited)
o Patriarchy and "Government"
o Patriarchy and "Paternalism"
o THESIS 8: THE FALL OF THE ANGELS
o THESIS 9: THE FALL OF MAN
o THESIS 10: THE PURPOSE OF CAIN'S “SUSPENDED SENTENCE”
o The Patriarchal Power of Capital Punishment
o The Mark of Cain
o THESIS 11: CAIN'S CITY: THE AUTONOMY OF THE STATE
o Raising Cain
o Why Cain Was Not Executed for Murder
o THESIS 12: THE DEMONIC ROOTS OF TYRANNY
o "The Sons of God and the Daughters of Men"......."
End Trace Mode for Comment # 4.