• Question: Hi, How do genetics make you have certain eye/hair colour? Thanks alot!

    Asked by louloulorna to Gill, Akram, David, Jack, laurenceharwood on 19 Mar 2012. This question was also asked by lizza.
    • Photo: Gill Menzies

      Gill Menzies answered on 19 Mar 2012:

      Your genes are inherited from your parents.Most cells in the human body have 23 pairs of chromosomes -each parent gives you one chromosome in each pair. Genes can be dominant or recessive. Dominant genes show their effect even if there is only one copy of that gene in the pair (e.g. brown eyes). For a person to have a recessive characteristic, the person must have the gene on both chromosomes of the pair (blue eyes, red hair, joined earlobes ….the list goes on…) Hope this helps 🙂

    • Photo: Akram Alomainy

      Akram Alomainy answered on 19 Mar 2012:

      I know that I got mine from my Mum and my Grandfather 🙂

      I can’t give a better answer thanks Gill 😉

    • Photo: Laurence Harwood

      Laurence Harwood answered on 19 Mar 2012:

      The rules of genetics can be based on rathe simple maths and mena that you get a certain amount of your characteristics from your mother and a certain amount from your father – it all depends whether you are a boy or a girl as well. Now, your mother and father also got their characteristics from their mother and father and so some of these will drift own to you. Then, your grandparents got their characteristics from your great grandparents, so it all starts to cme down to some great statistical melting pot whic explains why you don’t look exactly like your brothers and sisters (if you have any) because some of the messages are passed on randomly – some more strongly thatn others (so-called “dominant” and “recessive” genes). Black hair and brown eys tend to resutl from dominant genes so if one of your parents has black hair or brown eyes, the chances are you will. See what Akram says – he has dark hair and got it from his mum and grandmother. I was the same, getting dark hair form my mother but, like my dad who went grey very young, I was grey when I was 40 years old. Unlike my dad who kept all his hair, I’m now starting to lose mine – just like my mum’s dad who was bald at the age of 30 . You see how it all mixes up?

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