Green eyes remain rare in human populations due to specific genetic inheritance patterns
the verdict
SUPPORTED
the evidence backs this
confidence 88/100
Specific genetic inheritance patterns and polygenic interactions—particularly at the OCA2-HERC2 locus—dictate the distribution and rarity of human eye colors.
Evidence for · 6
Interactions Between <i>HERC2</i>, <i>OCA2</i> and <i>MC1R</i> May Influence Human Pigmentation Phenotype
2009 · cited by 99
Paper 0 confirms that human pigmentation and eye color are shaped by complex gene-gene interactions involving loci such as HERC2 and OCA2.
See more details
More for · 5
Importance of nonsynonymous OCA2 variants in human eye color prediction
2016 · cited by 38
Paper 1 notes that while the rs12913832 SNP strongly influences iris pigmentation, eye color determination cannot be fully explained without considering additional variants.
Further insight into the global variability of the OCA2-HERC2 locus for human pigmentation from multiallelic markers
2021 · cited by 11
Paper 2 demonstrates that specific haplotype structures across the OCA2-HERC2 locus account for the major proportion of human eye color variation.
A comparative GWAS of eye colour in light and dark eye genetic backgrounds defined by HERC2 rs12913832 polymorphism in a Canadian cohort of European ancestry
2026 · cited by 1
Papers 7 and 8 highlight how polygenic inheritance patterns and specific gene-gene interactions modify primary genetic predictors to determine various eye color presentations.
A comparative GWAS of eye colour in light and dark eye genetic backgrounds defined by HERC2 rs12913832 polymorphism
2025 · cited by 0
Paper 11 explains that eye color is governed by polygenic inheritance exhibiting epistasis and incomplete dominance across multiple genes like HERC2 and OCA2.
Genotype-phenotype associations and human eye color.